Harry Potter and the Ravens Wings
by Superq
Summary: CHAPTER 17 IS UP!It is the sixth book... by me! There is a new girl at Hogwarts, she is very mysterious, so of course Harry falls for her. RR
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1  
  
Harry Potter sat on his bed, doing his summer homework. He now only had his Potions essay to do, but as Potions was his least favorite subject, this was hardly and encouraging thought. He sighed, pulled a new roll of parchment towards him, dipped his quill in his ink, and wrote:  
  
Dear Ron,  
  
He paused, realized what he had done, crumpled the parchment in his fist, and chucked it to the trash basket. It landed beside the basket with all of the other crumpled bits of parchment that had missed as well.  
  
He looked at the eagle feather quill that had been a gift from Hermione Granger. She and Ron were Harry's best friends in the world, including the Muggle world.  
  
Harry was a wizard. An extraordinary and famous wizard who was treated like owl droppings during the summer holidays at his Aunt and Uncle's house.   
  
Harry thought of actually doing his essay and looked at the page his textbook was opened to, trying to find a way to start it that wouldn't earn him a D. He moaned and slammed the book shut, thinking that he would just do it later. Just then there was a soft tap on the window. Harry automatically slid off the bed and opened it so his snowy owl, Hedwig, could come in from hunting all night.  
  
"Hey, Hedwig," he said. "Did you have a good hunt--?" Harry trailed off, realizing that Hedwig was not alone.  
  
Ron's owl, Pigwidion, was there too. He fluttered inside and, twittering like mad, held out his leg so Harry could take off the letter tied to it. Pigwidion then began zooming around the room, as he usually did when was excited.  
  
Hedwig was also accompanied by a large brown owl and--  
  
Harry's legs seemed to have turned to jelly. Hermes.  
  
Harry rushed to detach the letter on Hermes' leg. Hermes immediately took flight out of the window again, but Harry hardly noticed. He was staring at the address on the envelope, written in Percy's handwriting. He couldn't believe it. Percy was writing to him. Maybe it was an apology for helping make Harry look like an insane delinquent. It had to be, what else would it be?  
  
But, thought Harry. What if it's not? What if he still thinks-  
  
"OUCH!"  
  
Hedwig had pecked him hard on the arm to get his attention. She was still holding out her letter on her leg and the barn owl was looking at him in a frustrated sort of way. Harry detached the parcel and letter that Hedwig had and also the parcel and letter that the barn owl had. The brown owl left as well, but Hedwig settled into her cage, staring at Pigwidion in a very annoyed sort of way, as he was now flying around the inside of her cage.  
  
"Will you shut up?" Harry snapped at Pigwidion. But he just hooted louder and louder at this. He dipped his beak into Hedwig's water dish and finally took flight.  
  
Harry looked back at Percy's letter, unsure if he wanted to open it. He laid it down on the bed and opened instead Hedwig's letter.  
  
Dear Harry,  
  
Happy Birthday! I hope you like your gift. Ron was stupid enough to send his gift to you with Pigwidion. I really hope it got there. Any chance of seeing you before September 1st? Maybe the three of us can meet in Diagon Alley? Please let me know! See you soon!  
  
Love from Hermione  
  
Harry smiled at Hermione's comment about Ron. They were always picking on each other. He opened the parcel that Hermione had sent, which turned out to be a magical knife just like the one Sirius had given him, but with a different handle. The note inside the parcel said:  
  
I know you lost your knife last year, and thought you might think it useful to have one.  
  
"Well that's great, Hermione," Harry said bitterly. He did appreciate the gift, but it made him miss his godfather even more. Harry thought he might take the blade from Hermione's knife and attach it to the handle of Sirius's knife (which was all that remained of it) that was still in the bottom of his trunk.  
  
Harry turned to Ron's letter now.  
  
Hey Harry,  
  
I sent this with Pig because I haven't got any other owl to send it with. Let me know if it doesn't get there.  
  
You want to know something weird? Percy wrote to us. ("You, too, huh?" Harry said.) He is SUCH A STUPID GIT!  
  
Anyway, Hermione was going to ask you if we could all three meet in Diagon Alley. But she probably started going on about some stupid book she read and forgot to mention it, so I'll ask too. Write back soon to let me know! Happy Birthday!  
  
Ron  
  
Harry laughed as he put down the letter.  
  
Pig hadn't come with a parcel, but the barn owl had. Harry saw Ron's handwriting on the front and thought that the barn owl had had to help Pig with his load. Harry opened it.  
  
"What the-?" Ron had given Harry a plain white quill and a bottle of black ink.  
  
Feeling baffled, Harry read Ron's note.  
  
Okay, this has got to be the coolest present you've ever gotten. ("...Why?" Harry muttered.) Try this. Look at the ink bottle and say any color you want. Then look at the quill and say any color or type of quill you want. They will change to whatever you tell them to! So you can have any type of ink and any type of quill whenever you want! Cool, huh?  
  
Ron  
  
"No way!" cried Harry excitedly. He looked at the ink bottle and said, "Green." The ink immediately turned green.   
  
"Wow, Ron! This is great!" said Harry. He turned to the quill and said, "Blue." The feather turned to a brilliant shade of blue.  
  
Still marveling at this gift, Harry turned to the letter the brown owl had brought. It was his Hogwarts letter, but it was much thicker that usual. Harry moaned. His O.W.L results. He didn't want to read those just yet, and decided instead to read Percy's letter.  
  
He slowly opened it and read:  
  
Potter:  
  
I was just writing to let you know that I believe what you said about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named coming back. Of course you realize that there was no proof and we had no reason to believe your far-fetched story. Now that the Minister himself has seen You-Know-Who in the Ministry of Magic, we have no choice but to believe you. Of course, we still question your sanity, as you have made up stories about Dementors, House-Elves, Animagi, and innocent convicts to get yourself out of trouble. If you have real proof that these stories you have come up with are real, then by all means do not hesitate to come to the Ministry and let us know. We are happy to accept proof of matters such as these and will give you a fair hearing. Now, I must get back to work, I'm quite busy, you know.  
  
Percy  
  
Harry ripped the letter in half, disgusted. He threw the two pieces of the letter onto his bed and glared at them, as if hoping they would catch fire. He stopped before the parchment actually did ignite, for he had just seen something at the bottom of the letter. He held the bottom half very close to his eyes and saw miniscule writing at the bottom. He was very curious as to what the writing said, but e could not make out the words. He decided to just keep the letter. As soon as he got to the Hogwarts Express, he would enlarge the parchment and read the writing at the bottom. But for now, he turned to his Hogwarts letter, and his O.W.L. results. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Results of Mistakes  
  
He opened the letter about when term started and read it quickly. He pretty much knew it by heart anyway. He put aside the first letter and the new supplies list that had come with it. He just wanted to know if he could be and Auror or not. The first extra slip of parchment was his Charms results. Harry remembered dimly that that had been the first exam he had taken.  
  
Charms  
  
Professor Tofty  
  
Exceeds Expectations (89%)  
  
Mr. Potter did above average on his written exam and did very well on the practical exam. He had some trouble with incantations, but did well besides that. He has been accepted into N.E.W.T level Charms.  
  
Harry felt like his heart was about to burst with relief. He had passed one of his exams that he needed to become and Auror. Heart thumping, he looked at the next result.  
  
Transfiguration  
  
Professor Ogden  
  
Exceeds Expectations (91%)  
  
Mr. Potter did an average job on his written exam. However, he did quite well on his practical exam, showing fair skill at Vanishing Spells. He is accepted into N.E.W.T level Transfiguration.  
  
That was another pass closer to being an Auror. Harry was feeling very nervous and excited now, as he needed to pass two, maybe three more subjects. Defense Against the Dark Arts was an O for sure, but he was very unsure about his Potions and Herbology results. The next slip of parchment was-  
  
Herbology  
  
Professor Marchbanks  
  
Acceptable (80%)  
  
Potter showed reasonable knowledge on the subject in his written exam, and did well in his practical exam. He can accept or decline the N.E.W.T level Herbology classes.  
  
Harry thought he would have to accept the class, as he might need it for being an Auror. Now all he needed to pass was Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts. The next slip was the easiest for Harry to read, as he was entirely confident this time.  
  
Defense Against the Dark Arts  
  
Professor Tofty  
  
Outstanding (110%)  
  
Mr. Potter did exceptionally well in both his written and practical exam. He earned extra credit for perfectly performing the Patronus Charm. He has most definitely been accepted into N.E.W.T. level Defense Against the Dark Arts. Well done, Mr. Potter!  
  
This was no surprise to Harry, as he had plenty of practice in the subject during his days at Hogwarts. Now all that was left was Potions. Harry needed an 'Outstanding' to be in N.E.W.T. level Potions. He looked at the next piece of parchment and his heart fell. It was not Potions; it was Care of Magical Creatures.  
  
"But I took the Potions exam right after the Defense Against the Dark Arts one!" He said angrily. He read through the Care of Magical Creatures results anyway.  
  
Care of Magical Creatures  
  
Professor Greene  
  
Outstanding (95%)  
  
Mr. Potter showed excellent knowledge in both exams. He has been accepted into N.E.W.T level Care of Magical Creatures classes.  
  
Harry noticed that the comment was rather short, but was too anxious about his Potion grade to care. He moved on.  
  
Astronomy  
  
Professor Tofty and Professor Marchbanks  
  
Poor (64%)  
  
Mr. Potter did not seem to know all of the stars, moons, and planets in his written exam. In the practical exam he did a bit better. Possibly he would have done a more adequate job if there was not particular distractions on the grounds that night. He has not been accepted into N.E.W.T level Astronomy.  
  
Harry didn't care, he didn't really like Astronomy anyway, and he didn't need to pass it to be an Auror. What he really wanted to know was his Potions result. But his next result sheet was Divintation.  
  
Divintation  
  
Professor Marchbanks  
  
Dissatisfactory (28%)  
  
Mr. Potter is terrible at Divintation. He has NOT been accepted into N.E.W.T level Divintation by any means.  
  
"Good!" Harry said loudly at the parchment. He felt a bit angry at the snappiness of the comment, but he did not want to be in Divintation at all. The next parchment slip was--  
  
History of Magic  
  
Professor Marchbanks  
  
Acceptable (87%)  
  
Potter did well on the amount of the exam that he did do. Due to circumstances, however, he did not fully complete the exam. He has the choice to take N.E.W.T level History of Magic or not.  
  
Harry was really surprised that he did so well, and smiled a little at how they gave him a choice of taking the class or not. Who would want to take N.E.W.T level History of Magic, anyway? He looked at his next result and nearly fell off the edge of the bed.  
  
Potions  
  
Professor Marchbanks  
  
Outstanding (97%)  
  
Potter did well on the written exam, describing the effects of Polyjuice Potion extremely accurately. He did well on the practical exam as well. He has been accepted into N.E.W.T level Potions.  
  
Harry couldn't believe it. He was in. He had a chance of being an Auror. And he had received an 'O' on his Potions O.W.L. There was no way. Just no way. Then, as Harry looked back at the Potions results to be sure he wasn't dreaming, he saw that there was some ink bleeding through from the other side of the parchment. He turned it over and saw a hastily written, blotchy note in handwriting that, if it hadn't been written so quickly, Harry thought it was slightly familliar. It read:  
  
If you mention what you saw in the Pensieve last year to anyone, Potter, you will be kicked out of my class for sure. Hopefully this will pursuade you to keep your word. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Returning to Order  
  
So Snape had only passed him because he didn't want Harry to get mad and tell someone about the Pensieve. Harry was confused about how he felt. He didn't know whether to feel relieved that he had passed or angry that he had not really earned the grade. Then he wondered what Hermione would say if she knew, and made a mental note to never tell her.  
  
Then a horrible thought hit him. He was going to be the worst in his class because he wasn't really supposed to be in it. He might as well tell Ron and Hermione about the Pensieve. He was going to be kicked out of N.E.W.T Potions anyway. But he would either be kicked out by an angry Snape (always a frightening thought), if he told about the Pensieve, or a happy Snape (if Snape was ever happy it was usually because someone else was miserable, namely, Harry), if he failed the class.  
  
"But, wait," Harry said slowly. "Snape didn't examine me, Marchbanks did!"  
  
He looked at Hedwig, who stared blankly back, then looked back at his O.W.L. result.  
  
Did Hogwarts professors have input on the exam grades? Harry felt completely lost. He looked all around his room, as though the answer to his question was going to be hiding in the corners.   
  
Harry jumped as his eyes fell on the clock. It was nearly four in the morning.  
  
He yawned and shoved all his mail off the bed and onto the floor, thinking he might as well get some sleep.  
  
×××××  
  
Harry woke and sat bolt upright. Someone downstairs had screamed.  
  
"Vernon! Vernon!"  
  
Harry slid out of bed as he heard Uncle Vernon pounding down the hall. Once he was sure his uncle was downstairs, he opened the door and slipped out.   
  
"VERNON!" Aunt Petunia screamed again.  
  
"I'm right here, Petunia, stop yelling!"  
  
Harry stopped just outside the kitchen door, where his aunt and uncle were, so he could hear what was going on inside.  
  
"OWLS!" Uncle Vernon roared. "MORE OWLS! GET-IN-HERE-RIGHT-NOW-BOY!"  
  
Harry waited a few moments so it would appear that he had come from upstairs. Then he stepped calmly into the kitchen.  
  
"You rang?" He asked casually.  
  
It seemed that words were not enough to express Uncle Vernon's rage. He pointed to the window, where an owl was just flying out.  
  
"Yes, that's an owl," said Harry gently, as if he was explaining to a two-year-old.  
  
"DON'T YOU DARE ACT SMART WITH ME YOU LITTLE-"  
  
"Vernon, no-" Aunt Petunia was cut off by Dudley, who wandered in, looking confused by the noise, and asking stupidly:  
  
"What's for breakfast?"  
  
Harry rolled his eyes and began scanning the kitchen with his eyes to see where the letter that the owl had undoubtedly brought was.  
  
"Y-yes, breakfast!" cried Aunt Petunia. "What would you like, Harry, dear?"  
  
Harry was struck dumb for a moment, and it seemed that his uncle and cousin were, too.  
  
"Petunia, are-are you-quite all right?"  
  
Harry noticed that a letter was clutched in Aunt Petunia's hand. This must be why she was acting so oddly, Harry guessed.  
  
"I'd like to read that letter," he said matter-of-factly.  
  
"OH, no you don't!" shouted Uncle Vernon. "It's not yours, otherwise it would have come to your room, stupid boy!"  
  
Harry was surprised that Uncle Vernon had thought of this little detail, he had never been extremely smart.   
  
"Oh, Vernon, don't be so hard on him, he was up all night, I heard him, poor thing," said Aunt Petunia, setting down Harry's unusually large breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast.  
  
"Would someone mind telling me what's going on?" Harry asked furiously.  
  
"Yeah, me, too, mum, tell me!" whined Dudley.  
  
"Shut up Duddykins, or I'm going to curse you!"  
  
"NO YOU WON'T! YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED! MUUUUMMMM!"  
  
Harry turned around. Aunt Petunia hadn't answered Dudley's call like she usually did. In fact, she was busy urging Harry to eat, while sitting faintly in the chair opposite him. Uncle Vernon was reading the letter, looking horror-struck. He pointed to Harry, then to the hall, then stomped off to the living room. Harry followed. Once they got into the living room, he rounded on Harry.  
  
"What-did-you-tell-them-boy?" he said in a lethal whisper, putting his purple-and-red face very close to Harry's.  
  
"If you let me read that letter I might know what you're talking about!"  
  
Uncle Vernon snorted and thrust the letter under Harry's nose. Harry took it and read:  
  
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Dursley,  
  
I am just writing to let you know ahead of time that we will be coming on the date of August 1 to collect Harry from your house. Please have him ready and packed by ten o'clock that morning.  
  
-Remus Lupin  
  
"WELL?"  
  
"I'll go get packed, then-"  
  
"YOU MOST CERTAINLY WILL NOT! WHY DID YOU DO IT, EH?"  
  
"DO WHAT?" Harry's temper was quickly beginning to match Uncle Vernon's.  
  
"TELL THEM TO COME HERE! TELL THEM THAT PETUNIA AND I WERE GIVING YOU A HARD TIME!"  
  
"WHO SAID I TOLD THEM ANYTHING?"  
  
Uncle Vernon took a few deep breaths, as though to make sure his head didn't explode, as it looked in danger of doing so.  
  
"You mean to say that you didn't ask these-these-people to come get you?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Then why are they coming?"  
  
"No idea."  
  
This, of course, was a lie. Harry guessed that Lupin and the others from the Order were coming to take him back to headquarters. Harry watched calmly as Uncle Vernon looked at the clock. All of the angry color was draining from his face, until he was very white. Harry glanced at the time as well. 9:56.  
  
"W-will they...be...arriving-quietly? No...loud noises...or...or..." he said the next word so quietly that Harry wasn't even sure if Uncle Vernon had made a noise. But he knew what it was. "magic?"  
  
"Don't think so...magic, maybe, yeah, but they won't make a huge show out of it, we don't want to be discovered, do we now?"  
  
And feeling happier than he had all summer, including after getting his O.W.L. results, Harry bounded up to his room to gather all his things.  
  
Just as he put the last of his books in his trunk, collected his broomstick, and made sure Hedwig was ready for travel, he heard a low rumble of voices below him.  
  
He hurried down to the kitchen, where he found a large amount of people waiting for him, the Dursleys crammed into a corner, trying to stay as far away from the wizarding folk now crowding their kitchen.  
  
"Hello, Harry, how are you?" Professor Lupin came forward to greet him. Harry noticed that he looked even older and shabbier than the last time they had met, possibly because he had lost the last remaining of his best friends: Sirius.  
  
"Hey, Professor Lupin," said Harry.  
  
"All right there, Potter?" Alastor Moody was standing off to the side of the door, wearing his traveling cloak, as usual, but neglecting the use of his bowler hat to cover his magical eye.  
  
"Yeah, I'm...as good as I'm going to get right now."  
  
Lupin and Moody smiled sympathetically.  
  
"Need help with your stuff, Harry?" Nymphadora Tonks came forward, looking just like she had when Harry has last seen her, except for the fact that her hair was now in golden spikes.  
  
"Yeah, sure, Tonks, thanks."  
  
"Be quick, we don't have too much time, Harry. I need to get back to the Ministry." Kingsley Shacklebolt was in the back of the group.  
  
"An' I got to get somewhere...very good business offer, you know."  
  
"You're not going anywhere, Mundungus!" cried Professor McGonagall. "Hello, Potter. I trust you received your O.W.L. grades?" She was seemed to be fighting back a smile.  
  
"Yeah, I can't believe I passed all the classes I needed to!"  
  
Professor McGonagall beamed at him.  
  
"Come on, Harry, we've got to leave sometime before next year!" Tonks was standing impatiently by the kitchen door.  
  
"Right...sorry." And Harry followed her up the stairs to his room.  
  
"Oh, you've already packed..." Tonks seemed a bit disappointed.  
  
"Why? Doesn't that make it easier?"  
  
"Oh-well...yeah, but I just got the hang of that packing spell, I can get everything in there neatly now!"  
  
Harry smiled and grabbed his broom and Hedwig's cage. Tonks pointed her wand at his trunk and cried, "Locomotor trunk!"  
  
Just as they had done the previous year, they marched out of the room with the trunk floating in front of them. When they reached the kitchen a roar from Uncle Vernon greeted them.  
  
"DOING--DOING---THE 'M' WORD IN MY HOUSE! I WON'T HAVE IT! I WON'T! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW!"  
  
"With pleasure," said Tonks brightly.  
  
Kingsley Shacklebolt took out an old milk carton from his cloak. Aunt Petunia seemed revolted that it was in her kitchen. Harry could tell she was back to normal.  
  
Kingsley pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Portus"  
  
Uncle Vernon was still shouting about strangers using magic in his house, but no one was paying him any attention.  
  
"Aren't you going to get in trouble for making a Portkey?" Harry asked curiously.  
  
"Don't forget, Harry, that the Minister and many other Ministry workers saw Voldemort with their own eyes. They can't arrest one of us for doing something like this anymore. And besides, I work at the Ministry. Come on, now." And they all moved towards the milk carton.  
  
Uncle Vernon had stopped his yelling and was staring at the group of them, all touching this old piece of garbage. Harry found the Dursley's expressions quite amusing. Lupin and Mundungus were each holding one end of Harry's trunk while touching the Portkey, Harry was clutching Hedwig's cage, and Tonks was holding his Firebolt. Just then there was a jerk somewhere around his navel, and they were off. 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Mysterious Meeting  
  
Harry felt his feet hit the ground, and hear a very loud thunk as Lupin and Mundungus dropped his trunk. Tonks fell over, but the rest of them barely managed to stay on their feet.  
  
Harry looked around him. He was in the kitchen of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, his godfather's house and headquarters to the Order of the Phoenix. He felt extremely miserable in the house where Sirius had lived. But Harry did notice a dramatic change in it. It seemed much cleaner, though it was still made of dark stone walls. There were now bright portraits hanging on the walls, as well as other sorts of decorations and lighting that brightened up the cavernous room considerably.  
  
"Ron and Hermione will be upstairs, Harry," said Lupin. "They'll be wanting to see you. Tonks, will you help Harry bring his things upstairs?"  
  
"'Course," said Tonks brightly.  
  
"I'll just be goin'," Mundungus said quietly.  
  
"No, you will not, Mundungus!" Two voices had spoken at the exact same time: Professor McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley, who was now standing at the door of the kitchen. They smiled at each other, and McGonagall said, "I've got to get back to the school, we've got to finish preparing for the new term."  
  
"Of course. Goodbye, Professor," Mrs. Weasley said. Then she turned to Harry. "Hello, Harry! Ron and Hermione have been waiting for you to get here, you'd best go on up."  
  
"Okay. Thanks, Mrs. Weasley."  
  
Harry and Tonks made their way upstairs, the trunk floating along and occasionally bumping into walls and corners. They were talking brightly, and Harry was expressing awe at how much better the whole house looked.  
  
"Yes, Kreacher is really sick, we think he's dying, so it's been much easier to clean," Tonks explained.  
  
"Good. It looks much better." Harry said, but at the same time thinking, And who really cares if Kreacher dies? Kreature had betrayed Sirius, leading to Sirius' death. Harry held nothing but ill will towards the stupid house-elf.  
  
As they neared the front hall, Harry instinctively dropped his voice, but Tonks didn't bother to do so.  
  
"Tonks--shh! What about Mrs. Black?"   
  
"Oh, her? Don't worry, we finally got rid of her. Really simple, actually, we just didn't do it before because Kreature would have probably murdered us all."  
  
"How did you do it?" Harry asked, looking at the place where Mrs. Black's portrait used to be.  
  
"Oh, just a few Silencing Charms and some good ol' fashioned fire."  
  
Harry laughed and looked around. The walls were now white stone instead of dreary gray. The portraits were bright and cheery, as was everything else in the hall.  
  
When they reached the room Harry and Ron shared, they found Ron and Hermione sitting on one of the beds, talking in low voices. "Harry!" they both cried as he and Tonks walked in. Hermione ran forward and threw her arms around him.  
  
"Oh, Harry, I was so worried, I thought your aunt and uncle wouldn't let you come or something, did they give you a hard time? I hope they didn't, but that's just the kind of people they are, isn't it? Oh, and did you get your birthday present? What about Ron's? Did Pigwidion make it there okay? Did y-"  
  
"Hermione, give it a rest! Hey, Harry, how are you, mate?" Ron came forward to greet Harry, and Hermione finally let go of him.  
  
"Hey, guys! This place looks so great!" Harry looked around the room, which now had forest green walls, with beige bedspreads and puffy armchairs, and even a bookshelf.  
  
"So," she said slowly. "Did your aunt and uncle get mad?"  
  
"Actually," said Harry as he watched Tonks magic his trunk to the foot of the bed, "there's a funny story about that..."  
  
When he had finished telling Ron, Hermione, and Tonks all about his queer morning, they were all gasping for breath, they were laughing so hard. Ron was rolling around on the bed, Hermione had collapsed into a big squashy armchair, Tonks was sitting with her back to the wall, holding her stomach and shaking with silent laughter, and Harry was barely managing to stand. It all seemed so much funnier when he told it to his friends.  
  
Mrs. Weasley suddenly burst through the door. "Tonks! There you are! Emergency meeting in the kitchen, now!"  
  
Tonks quickly stood up and followed Mrs. Weasley out of the room.  
  
"Wonder what that meeting's about?" said Ron curiously.  
  
"Yeah, us, too!"  
  
Fred and George had just apparated into the bedroom, each clutching an Extendable Ear. "We just heard all about your morning, Harry," said George, giving the Ear a small shake.  
  
"Yeah, you did really well on getting your uncle mad!" Fred smiled proudly at him.  
  
"Thanks. How's the business going?" Harry asked curiously. Then, "...shouldn't you two be at the shop?"  
  
"Oh...well, about that..." George began.  
  
"Mum got really mad at us for leaving school," Fred said slowly.  
  
"And as punishment she won't let us run it-"  
  
"All summer long-"  
  
"Or join the Order yet-"  
  
"Until after Christmas-"  
  
"Which is really unfair-"  
  
"But for now, our loyal employees are taking care of it."  
  
"Employees?" Said Harry, unable to believe it. Fred and George beamed at him.  
  
"Lee and Angelina kindly agreed to take on jobs at the joke shop for us. But you're welcome to help out any time you want!"  
  
"Well, for now, what do you say we go see what the emergency is in the kitchen?" Ron said, quickly changing the subject.  
  
"Yeah, they'll already have started by now, but we should be able to hear the most part of it. Maybe mum forgot to put the Imperturbable Charm on the door in all her haste?" Fred said hopefully.  
  
"I doubt it," said Hermione.  
  
"It's worth a try!"  
  
And together they made their way down to the kitchen. When they got to the door, Fred handed Harry his Extendable Ear, but George kept his.  
  
"Better give it some distance, just in case," Ron whispered.  
  
"Good idea," said Harry, and they all backed up to the first corner in the hall, the Ears leading towards the door.  
  
"Go," said George quietly, and the Ears snaked under the door. "Yes!" he muttered. "She did forget!"  
  
Harry put the Extendable Ear into his real one, and could clearly hear the conversation inside the room as though he was in it, too.  
  
"Well, that's all we have on that matter," Moody growled. "Unless anyone has any other ideas?"  
  
No one spoke. Harry, on the receiving end, noticed that George was transferring everything that was said in whispers to the others.  
  
"Okay, now on to this girl..." Moody continued.  
  
"Why do we need to have a discussion about her?" said Lupin angrily. "I promise you, she can be trusted! Her father was in the original Order, he was a close friend of mine, and her mother-"  
  
"Is dead! We can't tell anything about her just because of how her parents were. Look at the Black family! Look how different Sirius was from them!"  
  
"Yes, he was much better than the rest of his family, wasn't he, Alastor?" said Dumbledore's quiet voice. "I have met the girl personally, and she is still distraught over-"  
  
"You're trailing off the subject, Dumbledore!" Moody snapped. He seemed to be in a very bad mood.  
  
"My apologies. I will just say that she truly wants to help the Order in any way that she can. I think it would be best if we let her in-"  
  
"No!" Mrs. Weasley's voice cut in. "She's only sixteen, we can't let her into the Order! She's not old enough!"  
  
"Well, Molly, I was about to say that we should let her in after she has had two years of education at Hogwarts. She attended a school at the castle in her homeland, and learned plenty there. I had her tested to see if she could transfer to Hogwarts, and she knows more than most students her age. With the exception, of course, of Miss Granger."  
  
Here Harry turned to look at Hermione, but found that she was gone. He was about to say something, but Moody was speaking again.  
  
"I still think we should be careful about trusting her."  
  
"Oh, don't be so weird, Mad-Eye," said Tonks casually. "I'm sure she's all right."  
  
"Alastor, I am afraid I must overrule you on this. We will have her attend Hogwarts for the rest of her magical education, then we will, perhaps, have another meeting about inducting her into the Order."  
  
"Fine. But can we at least meet this girl?" Moody asked grumpily.  
  
"Of course, Alastor. Molly, if you would please go get her-?"  
  
"Yes, right away. But doesn't it seem a bit cruel to bring her in front of the Order when she just got here? She seems so scared already..."  
  
"I'm afraid Alastor is right, Molly. It would be best."  
  
"Oh, all right..."  
  
Harry heard a chair scraping on the stone, and footsteps nearing the door.  
  
"Oh, no!" moaned George, and he and Harry quickly yanked the Ears out of the doorway. They came flying back to Fred, who caught them.  
  
"Hide!" he hissed, and they all hurried down the hall where they were crouching, towards the first door they saw. George yanked open the door. They all flew inside, George coming in last, closing the door quietly behind them. They all heaved sighs of relief, and Harry noticed that they were in a large storage closet. He asked, "Did anyone else notice that Hermione left?"  
  
"Yeah," said Ron. "Wonder where-"  
  
"Shh!" said George, who had his real ear pressed against the door. I think she's left...but she'll be coming back soon...yeah, I think I hear her...she's passed! Let's see if we can get a glimpse of this girl they were talking about!"  
  
He opened the door a crack, looked out, and motioned for the others to follow. They reached the corner and looked carefully around it. Mrs. Weasley was holding the door open for someone. All Harry could see was her back. She had very long black hair that came down past her waist, and she was wearing a strange garment. It seemed to be made of animal hide, and ended just above her knees. Harry could tell that her skin was semi-dark, like that of someone who was Native American. She entered the room, followed by Mrs. Weasley, and the door closed. They all looked curiously at each other, and Ron said, "So that was the girl?" 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Hermione's Temper  
  
Harry, Ron, Fred, and George were sitting in Ron and Harry's room, telling Hermione and Ginny everything that had happened. Harry was sitting on one of the beds with Ginny, Ron was laying on the other one, and Hermione was sitting on the floor with her back against Ron's bed. When they finished, Ginny said, "It's amazing mum didn't catch you. She didn't even see the Ears?"  
  
"No, she would have gone ballistic if she did, wouldn't she?" said Fred lazily, tossing a ball to George. Fred was lounging in one of the puffy beige armchairs, and George was lying on his back on the plush rug. He caught it and tossed it back to Fred. Harry noticed that it kept changing colors.  
  
"That was really lucky, though--what is that stupid thing, anyway?" The ball Fred and George were tossing had narrowly missed Hermione's head. She was leaning against the bed, watching Fred and George with an annoyed expression on her face.  
  
"One of me and Fred's inventions," said George, holding up the ball, which, Harry saw, was about the size of a baseball.  
  
"Well?" said Hermione impatiently. "What's it for?"  
  
"It's for fun, Hermione," said Fred. "Watch. It keeps on changing colors-" he held it up. "-and after a certain amount of tosses" -he tossed it back to George- "-it will do something spectacular!"  
  
"What sort of spectacular thing?" Hermione sounded very suspicious. "It's not harmful, is it?"  
  
Fred looked hurt. "Now, Hermione, when have we ever made something that could be harmful?"  
  
"Oh, let's see, maybe I should start with the Skiving Snackboxes-"  
  
"Hey, that was a good idea! They were really useful for annoying Umbridge!" cried George. "Hey, Fred, it should be just a few more, heads up."  
  
Fred caught the ball and tossed it back. Hermione looked at Ginny, Ron, and Harry. "Can you believe those two?"  
  
"No," said Ginny seriously. "They make impossibly good stuff, don't they?"  
  
"Ginny! You aren't supposed to side with them!" said Hermione poutily. "What about you, Ron? Harry?"  
  
"Well, I think-"  
  
Harry's statement was cut off when Fred and George's ball exploded and the whole room was showered with sparkling, multi-colored confetti. Everyone laughed, even Hermione.  
  
"Well, I'll admit, that was pretty neat!" she said, brushing sparkles out of her hair.  
  
"Here, Hernione, let me get that for you," said Ron, leaning over and helping her get the sparkles out of her hair. Ginny rolled her eyes. She glanced at Harry, pointed to one of the pillows on his bed, then to Ron, giving Harry a questioning look. He caught her meaning, grinned, and nodded. They both grabbed a pillow.  
  
"Thanks, Ron, but I've got it," said Hermione. Fred and George were busy trying to get the mess of confetti into a bag, and didn't notice anything. Harry and Ginny slowly slid off the bed and sneaked up behind Ron.  
  
"Ron, you're so weird!" said Ginny, and she and Harry began pummeling him with pillows. He shouted and grabbed one of his own pillows, and Hermione jumped up and grabbed one, too. Fred and George laughed and dumped the bag of confetti over their heads again, then also grabbed pillows. Soon everyone was engaged in a furious pillow fight, hardly able to see through the shower of pillow feathers and sparkling confetti.  
  
They were all getting worn out when a voice said,  
  
"What happened in here?"  
  
They all turned to where they knew the door was, and waited for the feathers and glitter to settle before realizing that Tonks was standing in the doorway. "A pillow fight? Why didn't you let me join?"  
  
They all grinned, and Harry said, "Sorry, Tonks. It was kind of-"  
  
"Impromptu," Hermione finished for him.  
  
"Er-right, that..." said Harry slowly. Everyone laughed.  
  
"Well, I've been sent by Drill Sargent Molly to tell you to-" -she put on a shrill, demanding voice- "-get down here to eat dinner right this instant!"  
  
They all laughed again, and made their way downstairs, Fred and George saying that they would clean up after dinner.  
  
Dinner proved to be a rather unpleasant affair. It was enjoyable enough at first, with the younger people who weren't in the Order yet nagging about what plans the Order had and whatnot. But then Ron let something slip.  
  
"What about that girl?"  
  
Mr. Weasley choked on his stew, Lupin put down his glass and stared at Ron, Moody looked sharply at him, his magical eye going crazy, and Mrs. Weasley jumped up from her chair.  
  
"RONALD WEASLEY DO NOT TELL ME YOU WERE LISTENING TO THE ORDER'S PRIVATE MEETINGS!"  
  
"Mum! N-no! I just saw a girl walking around the place and I wondered-"  
  
"Yeah, but now we know she's really important, if you had a meeting about her, thanks mum!" said Ginny brightly. Mrs. Weasley sat back down, still trembling with rage and glaring at Ron and Ginny.  
  
"Fine, then," she said, and Harry noticed that Lupin, Mr. Weasley, and Mad-Eye Moody were exchanging significant glances.  
  
The atmosphere was stiff and angry for the rest of dinner, and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny tried to finish their meals fast so they could leave. Ron was first to finish, and when he got up, saying "Thanks, mum, great dinner-" Mrs. Weasley snapped at him to sit back down and wait for everyone else to finish. When they all got up from the table, Harry distinctively heard Moody muttering to Lupin, "I told you! She's already betrayed our trust!"  
  
When they reached the bedroom, Hermione rounded on Ron.  
  
"What did you do that for? You just got her into serious trouble and she didn't do anything!"  
  
"Wha- Hermione! I just-"  
  
"Didn't you hear Moody when we left? He thinks she was walking around when they told her not to, and now they might not think she can be trusted and not let her into Hogwarts!"  
  
"Hermione, look I-"  
  
"You go downstairs right now and tell them the truth, Ron!"  
  
Ginny was choking back laughter, apparently highly amused at the sight of Ron cowering before Hermione's fury.  
  
"What are you laughing about?" Hermione snapped at Ginny. "You go down there with him! You helped make it seem like you were all innocent and she was the one to get into trouble!"  
  
"Hey! That's not fair!"  
  
"It's not fair to her if you make her take all the blame! You did the crime, you are going to fix it!"  
  
"But I wasn't down there with them when they listened to the meeting- Hey! YOU were down there, too Hermione!"  
  
"No, I wasn't! I left before you even put those foul things under the door-"  
  
"Now, wait a minute, Hermione! The Ears were a really good idea-" Fred began furiously.  
  
"OH THAT IS IT!" cried Hermione. "I'm going to bed and by morning I had better hear that you all apologized or you'll be sorry!"  
  
And with this threat lingering in the air, she stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind her.  
  
"...I don't know about you," said Ron, turning to the rest of them with a shocked look on his face, "but I think Hermione knows something we don't."  
  
"Well," said George, "I think so, too, but we'd better clean all this up before she remembers to come back and yell at us for making the mess in the first place..."  
  
××××  
  
The next morning, Harry and Ron woke up to a loud knocking on their door. Ron moaned and said, "Just a second-Harry, you get it."  
  
"No way, you get it, it's probably Hermione," Harry muttered with his face in the pillow.  
  
Ron sat up, looking horrified. "Well, if it's Hermione, then you get it! I don't want to be yelled at the second I open it!"  
  
"Well, you earned it, didn't you?"  
  
The knocking grew more insistent.  
  
"Oh, fine, you're such a great friend," said Ron sarcastically. He slid out of bed and shouted, "Just a second, gosh, it's only nine o'clock!"  
  
The door opened and Hermione came in. "Did you tell them the truth? And for your information it is now about eleven-thirty, you both overslept."  
  
"Yeah, we did tell them...and sorry that we were tired! We've still got the right to sleep, haven't we!"  
  
Hermione giggled. Her bad mood seemed to have worn off. "Harry, you need to get up, lunch is in about thirty minutes!" She ran over to his bed and sat down hard on his feet.  
  
"Ouch! Get off, Hermione, I'm up!"  
  
"You'd better get dressed, you lazy bums, and Ron, please comb your hair! You, too, Harry," she added as, groaning, he rolled out of bed.  
  
"Well, there's no point trying to make my hair lie flat. Just Ron needs to, then."  
  
"See you downstairs!" said Hermione as she hurried out of the room.  
  
"I don't think she heard you," yawned Ron as he pulled on his clothes.  
  
"I don't care," said Harry.  
  
They slowly walked downstairs together, yawning and stretching. On the way down, they met Ginny, who was coming out of her room.  
  
"Did you two just wake up?" she said incredulously, looking at their rather rumpled appearance.  
  
"Yeah, didn't you?" said Ron.  
  
"Nope, I was just brushing my hair before lunch...I can't believe you slept so long!"  
  
"Yeah, well..." muttered Harry.  
  
When they had eaten lunch (or, to Harry and Ron, breakfast), Mrs. Weasley ushered them out of the kitchen. She said that the Order was having another meeting and that Ron should walk around for a while to try to wake himself up-he had fallen asleep into his potatoes at the table.  
  
"Oh, but Harry, dear, I want you to stay," said Mrs. Weasley. "You need to be at this one."  
  
"Mum! That's not fair! We're of age! We're supposed to be in the Order now-" George began.  
  
"But you chose to leave school and now you're going to pay for it! OUT!"  
  
"Aw, but mum-how come Harry gets to stay?" Ginny whined.  
  
"Because-because, well, it's about Harry."  
  
Chapter 6: Secret Corridors and Secret Friends  
  
Harry stared at Mrs. Weasley. "Well, last summer I wasn't allowed into meetings, even though most of them were about me."  
  
She blushed. "Oh...well, it's just that...you need to be here this time. We-uh-have to tell you something important and-"  
  
"Well, we're going to find out anyway! If it's something important involving Harry, he'll tell all of us! Just like we said last year, he's going to-" Ron began angrily.  
  
"Oh, all right! But I'm not happy about it!"  
  
Mad-Eye Moody sighed. "Well, they are right, Molly. He's going to tell them this bit of news for sure, anyway."  
  
Fred, George, Ginny, and Ron each sat down excitedly, but Hermione just looked a bit worried. Then the meeting began. Professor McGonagall spoke up.  
  
"Now, Potter, this may come as a shock to you, but there is no other choice. Albus, if you would please-?"  
  
"Of course, Minerva," said Professor Dumbledore, standing up. "Harry, because this house no longer has an owner-" -Harry looked sharply at Dumbledore. Why did he have to bring up Sirius' death now? "-and it would be best to have someone to be Kreature's master until he goes, just to make sure he does not betray the Order, you have inherited Grimmauld place from your godfather, Sirius."  
  
Harry gasped and looked around. Everyone that did not already know this news (that was to say, everyone who was not a member of the Order yet) was staring at him, looking just as shocked as he himself was. "B-but...why?"  
  
"Sirius did not have any children of his own, so we give it to his godson. It makes perfect sense, if you think about it."  
  
"Of course," said Lupin, noticing Ron's look of excitement and slight jealousy, "this does not mean that you are now a member of the Order, Harry." Ron looked outraged and began to protest. Lupin continued over Ron's voice. "You are simply not old enough."  
  
After the announcement, Mr. Weasley made everyone but the Order members leave. Harry suggested that they walk around the house, as Mrs. Weasley had said after lunch, and the rest quickly agreed.  
  
When they reached the front hall, Ginny said suddenly, "Look, I've never noticed that door there before..." She was pointing to a small door just to the left of the stairs. It had been painted white, to match the walls, but Harry guessed it used to be dark to blend in with the rest of the house.  
  
"Let's see what's inside!" Fred whispered. Together they edged towards the door. He opened it and they all came inside. When Fred had closed the door, they all looked around. They were in a long stone hallway decorated with tapestries, with torches in brackets on the walls for lighting. Harry glanced at the other's excited faces in the flickering light, and realized that Hermione was, again, absent.  
  
"Where's Hermione?" Ron whispered.  
  
"Oh, no, she's gone again," said George in an exasperated tone. "Maybe we left her behind?"  
  
"Should we go back to look for her?" said Ginny. "Maybe she can't find us...do you think she'll worry too much?"  
  
"Nah, she'll be fine. Just look, we have a perfect opportunity for an adventure here!" said Fred, gesturing down the corridor.  
  
"Oh, you're so heartless, Fred!" said Ginny. But she, too, was looking down the corridor with excitement. "But I think you're right, anyway. Let's go!"  
  
They started slowly down the corridor. Harry noted that there was several doors set into the walls on either side. "Let's try this one first," he said in a low voice, pointing towards the door nearest to them. He advanced slowly and turned the handle. It swung open, revealing a room beyond. A harsh blast of cold air hit their faces as soon as it opened. Ginny gasped. They all made their way carefully into the room.  
  
It was rather small, and made of stone, like the corridor.  
  
"Don't close the door," said Ron quickly, as Harry made to do so. "What if it doesn't open again?"  
  
"Good idea, I'd hate to be stuck in here forever, we'd freeze!" whispered a shivering Ginny. Harry left the door open. He looked around the room. At one end was a black candelabra, with about twelve thick, white candles burning in it. Grouped around the candelabra were small pedestals with various books on them. Also nearby was a rather uncomfortable-looking wooden chair.  
  
At the other end was an opening in the floor with a staircase leading downwards. Everyone slowly advanced towards the staircase and looked down. It was too dark to see anything about where it led. Harry placed his foot on the top step, but George's voice held him back.  
  
"Hold on," he whispered. "Lumos." The tip of his wand lit, and Fred did the same with his wand. The held them up and squinted into the darkness of the staircase. Still they could not see far.  
  
"Come on," muttered Harry, and they all began to make their way down, Fred and George in the lead.  
  
"Careful, the floor's really uneven," Fred hissed over his shoulder. They all began to feel around before they took a step, just so they didn't fall. After a while, Harry's feet were really starting to get tired. But when he heard George's voice, he thought they must be near the bottom.  
  
"I'll go ahead and see what's there," he whispered.  
  
"Oh, George, please be careful!" gasped Ginny, who seemed very upset over the whole matter.  
  
"Don't worry, Ginny," he said. Harry could see everyone's face in the flickering light of Fred and George's wands. George continued, "I'm allowed to use magic, I'll be fine!"  
  
Harry looked around at Ginny and was surprised to see that she was close to tears. She just nodded, and watched anxiously as George continued down the corridor. He went pretty far before yelling, "OUCH! Be careful, there's a wall there...yeah, there's a turn right here..."  
  
And the light of his wand disappeared around a right-angle turn. Then his voice broke the silence again, but this time it sounded alarmed.  
  
"What the-" he began, then suddenly he let out a loud yell that was quickly silenced.  
  
"George!" shrieked Ginny, and she ran desperately towards the point where his wand light had vanished.  
  
"Ginny, no!" shouted Ron. "At least wait for us!" They all pounded down the corridor towards Ginny.  
  
"He's gone!" she gasped as they rounded the corner. "He just disappeared!"  
  
"Let's go back," said Harry. "If he's not here, maybe he's somewhere else in the house." But Harry was feeling just as upset as the others looked.  
  
××××  
  
Hermione walked towards the door next to the stairs that blended so well with the wall. She was carrying a tray of food. Balancing the tray in one arm, she opened the door. As soon as she entered the corridor beyond, she noticed that the first door was opened just a crack. That room was always full of cold air, so she closed it, wondering why it was opened in the first place. She continued to the last door on the right side of the hall. She knocked and entered into the bedroom.  
  
"Hey," she said.  
  
"Hi."  
  
"I brought you lunch."  
  
"Oh-thanks, Hermione."  
  
"...What's wrong?" Hermione asked as she placed the tray on the bed and threw herself onto the couch. "You look so...miserable."  
  
"Well...it's just that...I'm not used to being stuck in one place for such a long time."  
  
"Oh, well, you'll be able to come out soon. School starts in less than a month, and even before that we have to go to Diagon Alley. And from what I've heard, even Moody is deciding to trust you."  
  
"Oh, that's great! So I'll get to go to Hogwarts?"  
  
"Looks like it."  
  
"Why doesn't Moody trust anyone?"  
  
"He's just paranoid. I guess he's been an Auror for way too long. And even if Moody disagreed, I think Dumbledore will make sure you get in, because he's headmaster and all. Hey, did you open that first door on the left?"  
  
"...No, why?"  
  
"It was open when I came in..."  
  
"You don't think...someone went in there, do you?"  
  
Hermione froze. "Oh, no! Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George decided to walk around the house after dinner! What if they found the corridor and-"  
  
"You didn't close it, did you? They will need to get out!"  
  
"Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, I did! I'll go open it right now! Oh, gosh I can't believe myself...and those five, wandering in here..."  
  
××××  
  
Harry moved forward to open the door. Ginny's lips were turning blue, and everyone was shivering from the cold.  
  
"Wait...we left this open, remember?"  
  
"Oh, n-no! What h-h-happened? W-w-ill it op-p-pen?" Ron asked through chattering teeth.  
  
"Won't budge! Let's see...Fred, try Alohomora," suggested Harry.  
  
Fred came forward. "Alohomora!" he cried, pointing his wand at the door handle. It swung open. They all collapsed outside of it, and Harry slammed it shut behind them.  
  
"George..." muttered Ginny. Tears were now streaming down her face.  
  
"Come on, I'm sure he'll be fine!" said Fred. "Let's try this one." He moved towards a door that was a little further to the middle of the hall, but on the opposite side. He turned the handle and it opened. They were all a little hesitant about going in, but they went on anyway. Fred left the door opened and said, "Do you think someone should stand guard here, to make sure the door doesn't close again?"  
  
"No," they all said at once.  
  
"I've got an idea," said Harry. "I'll go outside and close the door, and you try to open it from the inside. Then we'll be able to see if it'll open again."  
  
They all agreed that this was best, so Harry slipped outside and Ron closed the door. It opened again from the inside, and Harry went in, feeling much better.  
  
He looked around the room they were in now. It too was made of stone, but it was much bigger than the last one. There was a soft rug on the floor, and the walls were lined with shelves full of books and other sorts of magical things. On the side opposite the door was a large fireplace with and enchanted fire burning in it. There were big armchairs around it. Harry thought they were rather creepy. It seemed to him that someone could be sitting in them, and they would turn around at any moment.  
  
Ginny moved to one of the dark corners where the light didn't reach. She looked like she was trying hard to make out something in the darkness.  
  
"Ginny, be careful," said Ron.  
  
Ginny reached out to one of the bookcases and pushed one of the books farther into the shelf. Harry watched in amazement as another book on the bottom shelf edged out. She pushed that one in, and another one came out. She tried to push it in, but it was far above her head. Ron, being the tallest, came forward and pushed the third one in. The whole bookcase slid back and another room was revealed. Ginny stepped into it, and before anyone else could follow, the bookcase slid into place, and no books were there to be pushed in. They had all vanished.  
  
××××  
  
Hermione came slowly back into the bedroom.  
  
"There was no one there," she said. "I wonder how it opened all by itself, then?"  
  
"I really don't know."  
  
"Why didn't you eat anything?"  
  
"I'm not hungry. I'll just eat it later."  
  
"Okay."  
  
"I'm kind of worried. What if someone did go in there?"  
  
"I didn't see any sign that someone had."  
  
"Well, if you say so..."  
  
"There's something else wrong, I can tell," said Hermione slowly.  
  
"Hermione, I'm not sure if I want to go to Hogwarts. I mean, isn't there a whole lot of people there?"  
  
"Well, yes, but don't worry, I'll help you. And I'm sure Harry and Ron will like you!"  
  
"Thanks, Hermione. I'm so glad I have at least one friend."  
  
××××  
  
Harry heard Ginny scream.  
  
"Ginny! Ginny!" All three of them were now pounding on the bookcase, trying to make it open, but they might as well have pounded on the stone wall for all the good it did.  
  
Fred slumped down to the floor, his face very white. "Ginny was right," he said, his face in his hands. "We should have gone back. Why did I have to be so stupid?"  
  
"I'm sure we'll find them," said Harry. "I mean, if there was anything dangerous in the Order's headquarters, they would have made sure it was gone before they let anyone into the house."  
  
"But what if it was...You-Know-Who?" said Ron in an unusually high-pitched voice. "Maybe he's causing all this to happen?"  
  
"I doubt it," said Harry quickly. "They might just be in one of the other doors. Shall we go look?"  
  
"Yeah, okay. Come on, Fred, we'll find them!"  
  
Fred got shakily up with Ron and Harry's help, and they left the room. They automatically went to the door on the opposite wall that they had not yet entered.  
  
Ron tried it, but it was locked. Fred came forward. "Alohomora!"  
  
Nothing happened. They turned around and tried the door next to the library room. It opened. Ron stepped inside and said, "Close it, and we'll see if it'll open from the inside."  
  
Harry closed the door and waited. Nothing happened. He called through the door. "Ron?" There was no answer. Then Harry heard Ron yell, and desperately fumbled with the doorknob. It wouldn't open.  
  
"Ron!" Fred cried to the closed door. "Ron!" But nothing happened. Fred moaned. "This is all my fault," he said miserably. "If I wasn't so keen on having an adventure-"  
  
"We all were, Fred, not just you. Come on, there's only two more doors. I'm sure they'll be in one of them!"  
  
They approached the second-to-last door in the hall. Harry opened it and the two of them stepped inside. Both of them let out very loud gasps.  
  
Opposite them in the stone room, there were large, vertical bars of light, making a kind of prison cell. Inside the cell was George, Ginny, and Ron.  
  
Fred cried out joyfully and ran to the others. "You're okay! You're okay!" he said. "I thought you were going to be gone forever, I was so stupid to get you into this-"  
  
"Shut up, Fred, and find a way to get us out of here!" said George happily. "I've been here ages, you know!"  
  
Harry came up to the bars. "You guys all right?" he asked casually. "Can I get you anything?"  
  
"Yeah, bonehead, you can get us out of here!" said Ginny. She indicated a place in the bars of light that was not golden, like the rest of them, but pale green. "I think that's the door."  
  
"Yeah, but how do I open it?"  
  
Ron looked annoyed. "Uh, I dunno, maybe try...um...the key?"  
  
"Key?" said Harry blankly, looking around. "Oh, right" he said, noticing an iron hook just inside the door with a key hanging on it. As Harry approached it, however, he noticed that the key was made of the same pale green light as the cell door. He reached out to grab it, but as soon as his fingers closed around it he dropped it and jumped back, crying out in pain. His hand was now a raw, shiny red.  
  
"What happened?" said Ginny anxiously.  
  
"The stupid thing burned my hand," Harry said, wincing and waving his hand around to try and stop the pain.  
  
"Here, Harry, allow me," said Fred. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The key floated into the air. Fred directed it with his wand over to the door of the cell. It slid into the lock, and the entire wall of light bars disappeared. Everyone cried out in relief and ran forward. Ginny took a sharp intake of breath as she looked anxiously at Harry's hand. "We'll have to get that fixed up," she said.  
  
Harry flinched as he moved his fingers. "Yeah, I know." 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 7: Diagon Dreams  
  
It was about a week after they had spent that awful time in the hidden corridor. They were all sitting in Fred and George's room, talking about various things.  
  
"Hermione's been disappearing a lot lately," said Ron slowly, breaking the long silence that had followed their discussion about Quidditch.  
  
"Yeah, I know. And did you see how mad she was when we told her about what happened in that corridor?" said Harry.  
  
"Good thing she didn't start yelling," Fred said seriously.  
  
"Yeah, she was trying really hard not to, though. She was just...silent. It was kind of creepy," Ginny commented.  
  
"And then she disappeared right after that! Again! I wonder where she keeps going?" George stated thoughtfully.  
  
Another silence followed this. Harry was just about to suggest that these two things were somehow related (and he was sure everyone else had thought of that, he just wanted to break the silence), when they heard excited voices floating up the stairs.  
  
Harry, Ron, and Ginny went out to see what was there. Fred and George stayed in their room, however, but Harry noticed two pieces of long, flesh-colored string sneaking down the stairs.  
  
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they found Mrs. Weasley in the front hall along with-  
  
"Bill!" said the three of them at once. Then Harry added, "...Fleur!"  
  
"Hey, guys!" said Bill happily. He hugged Ginny and Ron, then shook Harry's hand.  
  
"Hello, Harry!" cried Fleur, rushing forward to greet him. "I said I hoped we would see each other again, and here we are!"  
  
"Wow, Fleur, your English has gotten really good!" said Harry.  
  
"Yeah," said Bill. "I've been giving her lessons. I guess I'm just a really good teacher."  
  
"That or Fleur here's a really good learner," said Ginny.  
  
Bill made a face at her, then asked, "Where're the twins?"  
  
"Funny you should ask," said Fred.  
  
"Yeah, we're right here, thanks for noticing us," George said, unable to conceal a grin.  
  
The twins had, apparently, heard on the Ears that Bill was there, and apparated downstairs to say hello.  
  
"Hey, Fred-George," said Bill.  
  
"Come along, we're going to have dinner soon," said Mrs. Weasley happily.  
  
As they all followed her to the kitchen, Harry distinctly heard Bill ask the twins in an undertone, "How's Weasley's Wizard Wheezes coming along? Is mum too mad at you?"  
  
Fred and George both made faces and began to tell him about how they weren't allowed to do anything until the next year.  
  
Over dinner, two very exciting announcement were made (after Bill and Fleur had been filled in on everything that had been going on). First, Bill and Fleur were engaged. Harry couldn't help but to grin at Mr. Weasley's expression. Mrs. Weasley, however, seemed delighted. Fred and George jumped up and shouted "WHAT?" at exactly the same time.  
  
Second, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts was someone from the Order, though who exactly Harry didn't know. Lupin, Moody, and the rest of the Order members refused to tell. They spent the rest of dinner trying to get the information out of the Order members. It was actually great fun, thought Harry, as he climbed into bed that night.  
  
××××  
  
Harry had a very strange dream that night. He was in Diagon Alley, but Ron and Hermione had gone into one of the shops to buy something. Harry was waiting outside, watching the crowd go by, when he noticed someone familiar. He could only see the back of the person, but they had long, black hair that fell below their waist. It was the girl he had seen entering the kitchen of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Feeling very excited, he followed her. He wanted to know who she was, or even just what she looked like. He wound his way through the crowd, trying very hard not to lose sight of her. He reached the end of the street, where Gringott's Bank was, and found that she had disappeared. Instead, a centaur came out of the snowy white bank. He trotted down towards Harry. Harry looked around and noticed that all the people in the street had vanished, as well as the entire alley itself. Instead there was a forest and stars above. The centaur walked up to Harry, looked up at the sky, and said, "Mars is bright tonight." Harry looked up, too, and saw a raven flying away towards the sky, outlined against the moon.  
  
××××  
  
The day had finally come when they would go to Diagon Alley to buy their school things. They all pulled on jackets, as Tonks had come inside soaking wet, informing them that it was pouring down rain outside. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny met up with Mrs. Weasley and Tonks in the front hall. Today, Tonks had long, blonde hair, a small nose, and sea-green eyes.  
  
They left the house and stood, shivering, on the side of the road. Tonks threw out her right hand, and with a huge BANG, the Knight Bus was in front of them. They all climbed on board, Mrs. Weasley telling the driver, Ernie, to take them to Diagon Alley.  
  
"Diagon Alley it is!" he said brightly. They all found seats together, and waited while the bus jumped and jolted along the roads, skipping miles at a time. After many other stops and many other passengers had gotten off, Stan, the attendant, called out, "The Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley!" Ron hurried off the bus, followed by Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Mrs. Weasley, and Tonks.   
  
They all stepped into the dark pub, still rather dry. Mrs. Weasley and Tonks quickly found seats by the fire, telling the others to go buy their school things and meet back there.  
  
After they had gotten money from their Gringott's vaults, they hurried from shop to shop, doing their best to stay dry. They even visited Lee and Angelina in Fred and George's joke shop. They were in Mulpepper's when they ran into the person that they least wanted to see: Draco Malfoy.  
  
"What are you doing here?" he snapped when he saw them. "Surely you aren't buying something, Weasley? Did you manage to get some money over the summer? Probably not, I would have read about it in the news, that would have been very big, wouldn't it?"  
  
"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" said Harry coolly as he and Hermione held back Ron and Ginny. "Surely you should be in Knockturn Alley, or somewhere else foul like that? I notice your father isn't here. Can't show his face in public now, can he?"  
  
Ron and Ginny laughed loudly, but Hermione was still glaring at Malfoy.  
  
Malfoy's eyes narrowed at Harry. "You are going to pay for what you did last year, Potter. You're going to pay for ever being such a 'hero'."  
  
Harry looked sarcastically surprised. "Will I? Well, you are going to pay for what Lestrang did to Sirius. I can promise you that."  
  
"You know you're a disgrace, Potter, don't you? Hanging around with half-bloods, mudbloods, and garbage like the Weasleys-I expect it's because of your filthy mudblood mother-"  
  
"And you know you'd do much better to the world if you crawled under a rock somewhere and died, Malfoy, don't you?" Hermione spoke for the first time. Ron and Ginny beamed at her, then looked back to Malfoy's increasingly angry face.  
  
"Did Voldemort never tell anyone of you that he's a half-blood? Or did he just leave that little detail out?" Harry said in an exasperated tone.  
  
"The Dark Lord is properly ashamed of being a half-blood, and he killed his useless father to make some good come out of him."  
  
"If I were you, I'd be properly ashamed that you follow some old geezer who can't even defeat a teenager!" Ron snapped  
  
"Why you-" Malfoy began towards Ron, but just then Mr. Mulpepper came up and asked if they needed help finding anything.  
  
"No, we're fine, thank you," said Hermione quickly, and they all hurriedly bought their things and left the shop.  
  
"I think that's everything," said Ginny, looking at her school list. "What about you?"  
  
"Yeah, I think we've got it all...what do you say we go back to warm up a bit at the Leaky Cauldron and have something to eat? I'm starving." moaned Ron.  
  
"Sounds good to me," said Harry eagerly. "Hermione-?" But Hermione was hurrying away down the street.   
  
Ron sighed. "She probably forgot something on her list. She knows where we're going; she'll meet us back there. Let's go already!"  
  
When they reached the Leaky Cauldron, they found Tonks and Mrs. Weasley still sitting by the fire.  
  
"Hey mum," said Ginny as she sat down on the hearth, trying to dry her hair.  
  
"Oh, hello," said Mrs. Weasley brightly. She didn't ask about Hermione.  
  
"Er-Hermione forgot something, I think. She just ran off as soon as we were about to come back..." Harry began awkwardly.  
  
"Oh, that's fine, dear, we'll just wait here for her."  
  
××××  
  
"Sorry I'm late," gasped Hermione as she slid to a halt next to Flourish and Blotts. "We ran into someone at Mulpepper's."  
  
"It's okay. I've already gotten my books, though."  
  
"Oh, that's great! Now we need to get you some robes, potion ingredients, scales, quills and ink..."  
  
And they hurried off to buy all the things needed for school.  
  
××××  
  
"Hermione, where have you been? You looked soaked!"  
  
"Just checking to make sure I got everything."  
  
"Right..." Ron said slowly.  
  
"Well, we'd best get going. Hermione, dear, I'm sorry you don't have time to dry yourself off-"  
  
"Oh, it's okay," she said quickly. "We'd better go..."  
  
Harry wasn't sure, but he thought he heard Mrs. Weasley mutter to Hermione as they left, "Has the raven flown home?" Hermione quickly nodded.  
  
All of them laden with packages, they left the pub and boarded the Knight Bus once more. After a long, bumpy, uncomfortable ride, they arrived in Grimmauld Place. Harry quickly paid the driver for everyone's ride, then led them all off the bus. Once inside, they all went down to the kitchen. They hadn't gotten a chance to eat at the pub, because Tonks told them that they would be eating as soon as they got back, anyway. After a large lunch and a long time spent by the fire, they all felt much better and went back to Harry and Ron's room. Or, they thought it was all of them.  
  
"Hermione's gone again!" said Ron when they reached the bedroom.  
  
"Did you notice that she always disappears after meals?" said Fred, entering the room. "Oh, well, what can you do? How was Diagon Alley? Did you see Weasley's Wizard Wheezes? Wish we could have gone." he finished bitterly. Mrs. Weasley had refused to let the twins come to Diagon Alley because she thought they would have gone to their joke shop. She was, of course, right.  
  
"Yeah, we saw it. It was great. Lee and Angelina were having fun running it." Harry said. "Now, about how she disappears after meals...she left us in Diagon Alley for a long time, maybe she went to every shop again...and she was so mad when she found out that we had gone into that corridor-you don't think-?"  
  
"Hey! Sorry, I stayed behind to ask Lupin something."  
  
"What did you ask him?" said Ron suspiciously.  
  
Hermione grinned. "Well, I was trying to see if he'd tell me who our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is. He didn't of course, but I think he might have been seriously considering it! I was so close!"  
  
They all laughed. Hermione usually wouldn't be the person to do something like that.  
  
"Hey, Hermione," Ron began slowly. But then he caught Ginny, Harry, Fred, and George's looks and changed his question. "Why didn't you just tell us while we were down there?"  
  
Harry almost sighed with relief. Ron had been about to ask why she kept disappearing, he was sure of it.  
  
"Well, I didn't want it to look too suspicious. You know, like I had planned it with you or something."  
  
"Okay, then. Well, Platform Nine and Three-Quarters tomorrow! I can't wait!" said Harry, knowing he sounded a bit corny, but wanting desperately to change the subject. Hermione beamed at him, then joined in the conversation about what they wanted to do when they got to Hogwarts, what and who they couldn't wait to see, and (from Fred and George) what they wish they could see or do again at Hogwarts 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Diagon Dreams  
  
It was about a week after they had spent that awful time in the hidden corridor. They were all sitting in Fred and George's room, talking about various things.  
  
"Hermione's been disappearing a lot lately," said Ron slowly, breaking the long silence that had followed their discussion about Quidditch.  
  
"Yeah, I know. And did you see how mad she was when we told her about what happened in that corridor?" said Harry.  
  
"Good thing she didn't start yelling," Fred said seriously.  
  
"Yeah, she was trying really hard not to, though. She was just...silent. It was kind of creepy," Ginny commented.  
  
"And then she disappeared right after that! Again! I wonder where she keeps going?" George stated thoughtfully.  
  
Another silence followed this. Harry was just about to suggest that these two things were somehow related (and he was sure everyone else had thought of that, he just wanted to break the silence), when they heard excited voices floating up the stairs.  
  
Harry, Ron, and Ginny went out to see what was there. Fred and George stayed in their room, however, but Harry noticed two pieces of long, flesh-colored string sneaking down the stairs.  
  
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they found Mrs. Weasley in the front hall along with-  
  
"Bill!" said the three of them at once. Then Harry added, "...Fleur!"  
  
"Hey, guys!" said Bill happily. He hugged Ginny and Ron, then shook Harry's hand.  
  
"Hello, Harry!" cried Fleur, rushing forward to greet him. "I said I hoped we would see each other again, and here we are!"  
  
"Wow, Fleur, your English has gotten really good!" said Harry.  
  
"Yeah," said Bill. "I've been giving her lessons. I guess I'm just a really good teacher."  
  
"That or Fleur here's a really good learner," said Ginny.  
  
Bill made a face at her, then asked, "Where're the twins?"  
  
"Funny you should ask," said Fred.  
  
"Yeah, we're right here, thanks for noticing us," George said, unable to conceal a grin.  
  
The twins had, apparently, heard on the Ears that Bill was there, and apparated downstairs to say hello.  
  
"Hey, Fred-George," said Bill.  
  
"Come along, we're going to have dinner soon," said Mrs. Weasley happily.  
  
As they all followed her to the kitchen, Harry distinctly heard Bill ask the twins in an undertone, "How's Weasley's Wizard Wheezes coming along? Is mum too mad at you?"  
  
Fred and George both made faces and began to tell him about how they weren't allowed to do anything until the next year.  
  
Over dinner, two very exciting announcement were made (after Bill and Fleur had been filled in on everything that had been going on). First, Bill and Fleur were engaged. Harry couldn't help but to grin at Mr. Weasley's expression. Mrs. Weasley, however, seemed delighted. Fred and George jumped up and shouted "WHAT?" at exactly the same time.  
  
Second, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts was someone from the Order, though who exactly Harry didn't know. Lupin, Moody, and the rest of the Order members refused to tell. They spent the rest of dinner trying to get the information out of the Order members. It was actually great fun, thought Harry, as he climbed into bed that night.  
  
××××  
  
Harry had a very strange dream that night. He was in Diagon Alley, but Ron and Hermione had gone into one of the shops to buy something. Harry was waiting outside, watching the crowd go by, when he noticed someone familiar. He could only see the back of the person, but they had long, black hair that fell below their waist. It was the girl he had seen entering the kitchen of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Feeling very excited, he followed her. He wanted to know who she was, or even just what she looked like. He wound his way through the crowd, trying very hard not to lose sight of her. He reached the end of the street, where Gringott's Bank was, and found that she had disappeared. Instead, a centaur came out of the snowy white bank. He trotted down towards Harry. Harry looked around and noticed that all the people in the street had vanished, as well as the entire alley itself. Instead there was a forest and stars above. The centaur walked up to Harry, looked up at the sky, and said, "Mars is bright tonight." Harry looked up, too, and saw a raven flying away towards the sky, outlined against the moon.  
  
××××  
  
The day had finally come when they would go to Diagon Alley to buy their school things. They all pulled on jackets, as Tonks had come inside soaking wet, informing them that it was pouring down rain outside. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny met up with Mrs. Weasley and Tonks in the front hall. Today, Tonks had long, blonde hair, a small nose, and sea-green eyes.  
  
They left the house and stood, shivering, on the side of the road. Tonks threw out her right hand, and with a huge BANG, the Knight Bus was in front of them. They all climbed on board, Mrs. Weasley telling the driver, Ernie, to take them to Diagon Alley.  
  
"Diagon Alley it is!" he said brightly. They all found seats together, and waited while the bus jumped and jolted along the roads, skipping miles at a time. After many other stops and many other passengers had gotten off, Stan, the attendant, called out, "The Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley!" Ron hurried off the bus, followed by Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Mrs. Weasley, and Tonks.   
  
They all stepped into the dark pub, still rather dry. Mrs. Weasley and Tonks quickly found seats by the fire, telling the others to go buy their school things and meet back there.  
  
After they had gotten money from their Gringott's vaults, they hurried from shop to shop, doing their best to stay dry. They even visited Lee and Angelina in Fred and George's joke shop. They were in Mulpepper's when they ran into the person that they least wanted to see: Draco Malfoy.  
  
"What are you doing here?" he snapped when he saw them. "Surely you aren't buying something, Weasley? Did you manage to get some money over the summer? Probably not, I would have read about it in the news, that would have been very big, wouldn't it?"  
  
"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" said Harry coolly as he and Hermione held back Ron and Ginny. "Surely you should be in Knockturn Alley, or somewhere else foul like that? I notice your father isn't here. Can't show his face in public now, can he?"  
  
Ron and Ginny laughed loudly, but Hermione was still glaring at Malfoy.  
  
Malfoy's eyes narrowed at Harry. "You are going to pay for what you did last year, Potter. You're going to pay for ever being such a 'hero'."  
  
Harry looked sarcastically surprised. "Will I? Well, you are going to pay for what Lestrang did to Sirius. I can promise you that."  
  
"You know you're a disgrace, Potter, don't you? Hanging around with half-bloods, mudbloods, and garbage like the Weasleys-I expect it's because of your filthy mudblood mother-"  
  
"And you know you'd do much better to the world if you crawled under a rock somewhere and died, Malfoy, don't you?" Hermione spoke for the first time. Ron and Ginny beamed at her, then looked back to Malfoy's increasingly angry face.  
  
"Did Voldemort never tell anyone of you that he's a half-blood? Or did he just leave that little detail out?" Harry said in an exasperated tone.  
  
"The Dark Lord is properly ashamed of being a half-blood, and he killed his useless father to make some good come out of him."  
  
"If I were you, I'd be properly ashamed that you follow some old geezer who can't even defeat a teenager!" Ron snapped  
  
"Why you-" Malfoy began towards Ron, but just then Mr. Mulpepper came up and asked if they needed help finding anything.  
  
"No, we're fine, thank you," said Hermione quickly, and they all hurriedly bought their things and left the shop.  
  
"I think that's everything," said Ginny, looking at her school list. "What about you?"  
  
"Yeah, I think we've got it all...what do you say we go back to warm up a bit at the Leaky Cauldron and have something to eat? I'm starving." moaned Ron.  
  
"Sounds good to me," said Harry eagerly. "Hermione-?" But Hermione was hurrying away down the street.   
  
Ron sighed. "She probably forgot something on her list. She knows where we're going; she'll meet us back there. Let's go already!"  
  
When they reached the Leaky Cauldron, they found Tonks and Mrs. Weasley still sitting by the fire.  
  
"Hey mum," said Ginny as she sat down on the hearth, trying to dry her hair.  
  
"Oh, hello," said Mrs. Weasley brightly. She didn't ask about Hermione.  
  
"Er-Hermione forgot something, I think. She just ran off as soon as we were about to come back..." Harry began awkwardly.  
  
"Oh, that's fine, dear, we'll just wait here for her."  
  
××××  
  
"Sorry I'm late," gasped Hermione as she slid to a halt next to Flourish and Blotts. "We ran into someone at Mulpepper's."  
  
"It's okay. I've already gotten my books, though."  
  
"Oh, that's great! Now we need to get you some robes, potion ingredients, scales, quills and ink..."  
  
And they hurried off to buy all the things needed for school.  
  
××××  
  
"Hermione, where have you been? You looked soaked!"  
  
"Just checking to make sure I got everything."  
  
"Right..." Ron said slowly.  
  
"Well, we'd best get going. Hermione, dear, I'm sorry you don't have time to dry yourself off-"  
  
"Oh, it's okay," she said quickly. "We'd better go..."  
  
Harry wasn't sure, but he thought he heard Mrs. Weasley mutter to Hermione as they left, "Has the raven flown home?" Hermione quickly nodded.  
  
All of them laden with packages, they left the pub and boarded the Knight Bus once more. After a long, bumpy, uncomfortable ride, they arrived in Grimmauld Place. Harry quickly paid the driver for everyone's ride, then led them all off the bus. Once inside, they all went down to the kitchen. They hadn't gotten a chance to eat at the pub, because Tonks told them that they would be eating as soon as they got back, anyway. After a large lunch and a long time spent by the fire, they all felt much better and went back to Harry and Ron's room. Or, they thought it was all of them.  
  
"Hermione's gone again!" said Ron when they reached the bedroom.  
  
"Did you notice that she always disappears after meals?" said Fred, entering the room. "Oh, well, what can you do? How was Diagon Alley? Did you see Weasley's Wizard Wheezes? Wish we could have gone." he finished bitterly. Mrs. Weasley had refused to let the twins come to Diagon Alley because she thought they would have gone to their joke shop. She was, of course, right.  
  
"Yeah, we saw it. It was great. Lee and Angelina were having fun running it." Harry said. "Now, about how she disappears after meals...she left us in Diagon Alley for a long time, maybe she went to every shop again...and she was so mad when she found out that we had gone into that corridor-you don't think-?"  
  
"Hey! Sorry, I stayed behind to ask Lupin something."  
  
"What did you ask him?" said Ron suspiciously.  
  
Hermione grinned. "Well, I was trying to see if he'd tell me who our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is. He didn't of course, but I think he might have been seriously considering it! I was so close!"  
  
They all laughed. Hermione usually wouldn't be the person to do something like that.  
  
"Hey, Hermione," Ron began slowly. But then he caught Ginny, Harry, Fred, and George's looks and changed his question. "Why didn't you just tell us while we were down there?"  
  
Harry almost sighed with relief. Ron had been about to ask why she kept disappearing, he was sure of it.  
  
"Well, I didn't want it to look too suspicious. You know, like I had planned it with you or something."  
  
"Okay, then. Well, Platform Nine and Three-Quarters tomorrow! I can't wait!" said Harry, knowing he sounded a bit corny, but wanting desperately to change the subject. Hermione beamed at him, then joined in the conversation about what they wanted to do when they got to Hogwarts, what and who they couldn't wait to see, and (from Fred and George) what they wish they could see or do again at Hogwarts 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: The New Girl  
  
The next morning, everyone dragged themselves out of bed very early. Harry and Ron quickly dressed and packed up their school things.  
  
"Hurry up, we're leaving in fifteen minutes!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked up the stairs.  
  
"Wish we had packed up yesterday," said Harry gloomily as they picked up the pace of their packing. They were done in about five minutes, and then it took another five minutes to get all their things downstairs, as there was much traffic going up and down. They just had enough time to stuff some breakfast into their mouths when they were off. Fred, George, Bill, and Fleur had come along to see them off at the train station and to help with luggage if anyone needed it. They left the house and took the Knight Bus to King's Cross Station. Bill ran off to get them trolleys, and everyone quickly loaded everything onto them. They rushed off to platforms nine and ten, and faced the barrier between them. Mrs. Weasley looked at the clock. They had twenty minutes.  
  
"We've made good time," she said breathlessly. "Ron and Harry, you two go first."  
  
They walked up to the barrier and leaned back into it. They slid through and came out in Platform 93/4, then hurried to the scarlet steam engine, the Hogwarts Express. They found an empty compartment near the middle of the train and, after their luggage was loaded, they stepped back onto the platform to say goodbye.  
  
After they said all their good-byes, they went back to their compartment, Ginny now with them.  
  
"Where's Hermione?" said Harry in an annoyed voice.  
  
"She's in the Prefect's car," Ginny said quickly. Ron gasped and ran off to join her, muttering, "I completely forgot about that."  
  
Harry and Ginny laughed. They spent the time waiting for Ron and Hermione by playing Exploding Snap and snacking on treats that Harry had bought from the witch with the cart. The rain was still pounding on the windows, and Harry was very glad he was inside the train.  
  
Later on Ron came back, but not Hermione. No one asked about where she was. Since Ron hadn't eaten anything all day but the small breakfast in the morning, he quickly devoured 6 Chocolate Frogs.  
  
"Ron, that's so disgusting," Ginny said.  
  
"Don't care," said Ron, starting on a Cauldron Cake. The compartment door slid open.  
  
"Excuse me, but have any of you seen Hermione Granger?" asked an unfamiliar voice.  
  
"I think she's telling off some fourth years for letting off some dungbombs in their compartment," said Ron, looking up. He was the last to notice what the person who had spoken looked like.  
  
She was a girl about their age, with long, long, dark hair and semi-dark skin, and she was wearing that strange garment of animal hide. It was, unmistakably, the girl from Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.  
  
"Will she come back here? Can I wait with you?" asked the girl.  
  
"Sure," Harry said quickly. The girl stepped inside, closing the door behind her, and sat down in one of the seats. She had dark eyes and high cheekbones. She had a very pretty figure and seemed, as Harry had guessed, to be Native American. Ron was staring at her.  
  
"What's your name?" asked Ginny.  
  
"Naomi."  
  
"I'm Ginny Weasley, this is my brother, Ron, and this is Harry Potter."  
  
"Oh! You're Hermione's friends! She talks about you a lot."  
  
"Does she? Are you a friend of hers, too?"  
  
"Yes," she said, nodding. Harry noticed that she was watching him with great interest, but her eyes were not on his scar, like most people's were when they first met him. He had also noted that she recognized his name not as 'the famous Harry Potter', but as 'Hermione's friends'.  
  
"You were staying in headquarters, weren't you?" asked Harry.  
  
She looked quite surprised. "How did you know? They all insisted on keeping it all hushed up."  
  
"We were listening to the meeting about you, but we left after you went in," said Harry. "You mean Hermione didn't tell you?"  
  
Naomi shook her head. "No. Why were you listening to the Order's meetings?"  
  
Harry smiled. "Well, Mrs. Weasley told Tonks that it was an emergency meeting, so we thought we'd go see what the emergency was. We used Fred and George's Extendable Ears."  
  
"Oh. They make all sorts of stuff like that, don't they?"  
  
"Yeah-" the compartment door slid open again, cutting off the rest of Harry's sentence. It was Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.  
  
"Who's your new friend, Potter?" Malfoy asked coldly.  
  
Naomi jumped up. "You!"she cried. "You go to Hogwarts? Oh this is going to be awful, I have to go the same school with you!"  
  
Malfoy looked taken aback. "...Have we met?" he asked slowly.  
  
Naomi's eyes flashed. "Not formally," she snapped. Her wand was out and she was holding it very tightly.  
  
"Oh, yes, I remember you. You're that little savage girl who tried to-"  
  
Her wand shot up to point at Malfoy's heart. "Get out of my sight," she said. "Go."  
  
Malfoy smirked and pulled out his own wand, pointing it at her. "Give me your best shot."  
  
"Expelliarmus! Relashio!" Naomi acted so fast that Malfoy had no time to block the spells. His wand flew out of his hand and sparks flew out of Naomi's wand towards him. He staggered back into the wall of the compartment and looked fearfully at the wand. "Never," she said dangerously, "say that again." She tossed his wand back to him and said in a disgusted tone, "I'll tell you once more to get-out-of-my-sight!"  
  
Naomi was still marking Malfoy with her wand as he got up and scampered out of the compartment, a very baffled-looking Crabbe and Goyle following him. Naomi sat back down, breathing very hard and looking furious.  
  
"What was that about?" Ron asked, gaping at her.  
  
"He and his worthless father-"  
  
The door slid open again, and Hermione entered. She looked a bit surprised to see Naomi. "Oh, you've already met," she said, sounding delighted. "Naomi, what's wrong? You look really mad about something..."  
  
"Malfoy came in here-" Harry began, but Hermione seemed to know where it was going.  
  
"Oh," she said, looking nervously at Naomi. "So you met him, did you?"  
  
"I 'met' him about three years ago," she was still fuming, but seemed to have calmed down a bit.  
  
"Well, you should know that he's a Prefect, so he might make things difficult for you-"  
  
"Oh, don't worry, he's already done that," she snapped. Hermione began to tell about how mean Malfoy was at school, which didn't seem to cheer Naomi up much. But when Hermione told about the various times he had been paid back, she seemed to brighten up, and she even laughed. When Naomi was told about the time the imposter Moody had turned Malfoy into a white ferret and bounced him around the entrance hall, she had tears of laughter streaming down her face, as well as all the others. It was still a highly amusing memory.  
  
After that the train ride was much more enjoyable. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny told Naomi all about Hogwarts and the people and teachers there. Harry brought up the D.A. but trailed off when he realized that he didn't know if he'd be allowed to continue it this year.  
  
"Do you think we'll be able to do the D.A?" he asked nervously.  
  
"I'm sure Dumbledore will let us," said Ron slowly. "What do you think, Ginny?"  
  
"No idea. Hermione?"  
  
"I think he will, but I can't be positive."  
  
"What's the D.A.?" asked Naomi, who had been watching curiously.  
  
Harry launched into explanation about Professor Umbridge, and how they had formed the D.A.  
  
"Ooh, I'd love to join!" she said when he had finished. "I'd do anything to help defeat Voldemort and his Death Eaters!"  
  
Ron and Ginny flinched at the name. Harry, however, was mildly surprised that she had used it. He looked at Hermione and determined that she had already known that Naomi used the name 'Voldemort'.  
  
"Oh, don't be so stupid, you too," said Hermione impatiently. Naomi giggled.  
  
"Harry and Ron, get out, we need to change into our robes," said Ginny quickly.  
  
"Fine, then," said Ron. As he got up he grabbed three more Pumpkin Pasties.  
  
Harry and Ron waited outside the compartment, then they switched places with the girls so they could change. Harry noticed how different Naomi looked with her Hogwarts robes on.  
  
When the train pulled to a stop in Hogsmeade Station, they all began crowding towards the carriages that would take them up to the castle, trying to get to one as soon as possible so that they wouldn't get too wet. Harry looked eagerly around to see Hagrid, and when he spotted him he heard the familiar shout of "Firs' years this way! Over here, firs' years!"  
  
"Hey, Hagrid!" he shouted.  
  
"Hullo, Harry!" Hagrid shouted back. "See yeh in the Great Hall!"  
  
"That was Hagrid," Harry explained to Naomi as they climbed into one of the carriages pulled by Threstals.  
  
"Oh, is he a friend of yours, too?" Naomi was staring at the Threstals.  
  
"Yeah, he is, but I'll tell you more about him when we get inside the carriage," he prompted, giving her a slight push to make her go in.  
  
"Sor-ry," she said, climbing in. "You're not too patient, are you?"  
  
"Nope, not really," said Harry with a grin.  
  
As they rattled up to path towards the castle, Naomi seemed very preoccupied, staring out the window.  
  
"You okay?" Ginny asked after a while.  
  
"Hm? Oh, yeah. Why do you use Threstals to pull the carriages? I'm just wondering."  
  
"Oh, you can see them, huh? Well, I really don't know why...I guess it's because Hagrid has the only trained herd in Britain, so he has to use them for something, doesn't he?" said Harry.  
  
"Yeah...I guess...It's just that I think they sort of remind you of whoever's death you saw, you know? It's just kind of...depressing."  
  
"I can relate." Harry said grimly.  
  
When they reached the school and got out of the carriage, Naomi gasped. She was staring up at the massive Hogwarts castle, a look of awe on her face.  
  
They hurried up to the large oak front doors and into the entrance hall, all very wet and cold. Naomi was staring around, looking highly interested. The crowd of students began making their way into the Great Hall. Harry had barely taken two steps toward the doors to the Hall when Professor McGonagall's voice rang out over the students.  
  
"Naomi Smith, if you would come here, please!"  
  
Naomi turned and made her way over to Professor McGonagall, looking back at Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny as she left.  
  
Harry followed the rest of the students into the Great Hall, wondering what McGonagall wanted with Naomi.  
  
After they had all been seated at their house tables, the nervous-looking first years came into the Hall. They seemed very intimidated about the fact that every eye in the Hall was on them. Professor McGonagall instructed them to line up facing the four house tables, then placed a three-legged stool in front of them. On the stool she put down an old, tattered wizard's hat. It had once belonged to Godric Gryffindor himself, and it sorted all new students into their houses. Everyone stared at the Sorting Hat, and a rip near the brim opened like a mouth and it began to sing:  
  
One year ago in this Great Hall  
  
I gave a warning to you all  
  
I said that you would surely be  
  
Stronger together, you must agree  
  
But you wouldn't listen to a hat  
  
Now, I must tell you about that  
  
I have seen more than you know  
  
When chaos started years ago  
  
Differences caused this school to split  
  
Into four, and I must admit  
  
That at the time it seemed so smart,  
  
Breaking into four different parts.  
  
Their problems were, for then, at rest  
  
But Slytherin had to protest  
  
He started a foolish mission  
  
Also, that hateful tradition  
  
Of blood being dirty or pure  
  
So Muggle-borns had to endure  
  
Such taunts and discrimination  
  
That was passed through generations  
  
Then Tom Riddle came to this school  
  
And in a way he was a fool  
  
He chose to judge by 'type of blood'  
  
But his own blood was partly 'mud'  
  
He rose (or rather, fell, to some)  
  
To eventually become  
  
The Dark Lord who was feared by all  
  
Then one night he met his downfall  
  
In a Muggle-born's little child  
  
To whom most of the world then smiled  
  
But later on most of you chose  
  
To not believe our young hero  
  
You helped to make it seem that he,  
  
The boy who made the Dark Lord flee,  
  
Had finally lost his mind  
  
You were being so truly blind  
  
But now you see that he was true  
  
To his word all the long way through  
  
So now this year I'll say it once more  
  
And this time you cannot ignore  
  
The Sorting Hat, for he knows best  
  
What things will be put to the test  
  
In times to come, stick with your friends  
  
The true ones till the very end  
  
Beware of snakes who tell you lies  
  
And sneak about in full disguise  
  
You know who you can truly trust  
  
So stick with them, you really must.  
  
There was rather scattered applause at this, just as there had been last year, and the Slytherins did not clap at all. They all looked rather annoyed at the words of the Sorting Hat. Harry turned to speak to Ron and Hermione and was shocked to see Naomi sitting next to him.  
  
"Hey," she whispered.  
  
"Where did you come from?" hissed Harry. "Don't you have to be sorted or something?"  
  
"Yeah, Professor McGonagall had me sorted just now...she thought it would be better not to have me sorted in front of the whole school. I think they don't want people asking too many questions," she said quickly.  
  
Harry was about to ask why everyone was trying to keep her attendance at Hogwarts so quiet, but the Sorting began just as he opened his mouth. Professor McGonagall called the first years forward one at a time, and they came forward, put the hat on their heads, and waited to be sorted. All the tables applauded as new students were added to their houses. When it was over, Dumbledore stood up to make announcements.  
  
"Welcome, once again, to Hogwarts! And to our new students, welcome for the first time! I know you are all hungry, but I'm afraid I have a few notices to give out before we begin our feast. First, I would like to welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, whom I'm sure most of you remember from two years ago. Please welcome Ms. Fleur Delacour!"  
  
Fleur walked into the Hall from a side chamber, smiling at all of the students and looking just as beautiful as she always did. There was a lot of applause and cheering for her, mostly from the boys, but also because most of the people in the hall recognized her. She took her place at the staff table and looked around at the house tables.  
  
"Next," continued Dumbledore, "I have great pleasure in informing you ahead of time that we will be having two balls during the school term." A babble of voices broke out at this, but Harry felt his heart sink. He hadn't like the Yule Ball one bit in his fourth year, and he didn't think the balls this year would be much better.  
  
Dumbledore spoke loudly over the rumble of voices, and silence was quickly restored as he continued. "One will take place on December the twenty-third. The other will be towards the end of the year, but we have not yet set an exact date. Now, please enjoy the feast!"  
  
Naomi looked quite shocked as all of the plates magically filled themselves with food. Harry laughed a little and told her that she should get used to this. Ron already had his plate overflowing with food and was stuffing his mouth full with it. Naomi and Hermione looked completely revolted at this behavior, but Harry thought Ron had the right idea. He, too, began loading his plate.  
  
Naomi seemed to not recognize most of the food. She kept asking what the various dishes were. Ron finally asked her why she didn't know what the food was. Harry thought it was a rather rude question, but Naomi didn't seem to care. She answered simply, "We don't have food like this where I come from."  
  
"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked, wondering for the first time.  
  
Naomi just smiled mischievously at him and took a sip of Pumpkin Juice.  
  
After the feast they made their way up to Gryffindor Tower. Naomi didn't know the way, and she stayed very close to Ron, Ginny, Hermione, and Harry. She also seemed intrigued by the castle and was always looking around and commenting on various things. She seemed to especially like how they had to take hidden doors and stairwells to get to the tower. When they finally reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Harry and Ginny turned to Ron and Hermione. "What's the new password?" asked Harry.  
  
"Feathery Fwoopers," said Hermione clearly. The portrait swung forward to reveal a crawlspace in the wall. One by one, they climbed through it, emerging in the Gryffindor Common room.  
  
Naomi said happily, "This seems comfortable. Is this where you do your homework and stuff?"  
  
"Yup," said Ron. He yawned hugely and said, "But now it's time for bed. I'm so tired, what about you?"  
  
"Yeah, let's get to bed," Harry agreed quickly. "Tomorrow you'll have your first classes. We'll show you around," he added to Naomi. She smiled.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"Come on, our dormitories are this way, said Hermione, and she started towards the girl's staircase, with Ginny following her.  
  
"Goodnight," said Naomi, and she followed Hermione to the girl's dormitories.  
  
Harry and Ron proceeded up to the boy's dormitories, where they changed into their pajamas and got into bed. Harry was very tired, but he answered Ron's question of, "I've never met a girl like Naomi before, have you?"  
  
"No." And he dropped off to sleep.  
  
××××  
  
Harry had another unusual dream that night. He was walking down one of the Hogwarts corridors when he heard someone scream. He panicked, thinking that someone was in trouble and needed help, and began running to the place where he thought the noise had come from. He heard another scream and just as he rounded the corner he saw it. About halfway down the hall, someone was laying, crumpled, on the floor, and someone else was standing above them, wand raised. Harry got a few feet closer when he realized that the person on the floor was Naomi. He ran down the hall, wand raised, and shouted, "Stupefy!" Naomi's attacker fell to the floor. Harry ran over to Naomi and looked at her. She was unconscious, but it did not seem that she had been stunned by magic, so there was nothing he could do for her at the moment. He turned to the person who had attacked her. It was Malfoy. Harry felt rage pumping through his veins as he raised his wand to the still form of him on the ground. He wanted to hurt Malfoy worse than the state he was in now. He was just thinking of what curse to use when he noticed a very strange thing happening to Malfoy. He was slowly changing, like someone who had been taking Polyjuice Potion, but had run out of time. Harry watched as the sleek, blond hair was replaced by messy, black hair. The face changed and so did the rest of him, until Harry was looking at-  
  
Himself. 


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Percy's Note  
  
Harry woke with a start, feeling cold sweat on his face and trembling all over. He looked out of the window and realized that the sun was up. He got out of bed and changed into his robes, still thinking of his frightful dream. How could it have been he who attacked Naomi? Was this dream meaningless? He thought that maybe it was just because he had eaten too much at the feast. He left the dormitory and started down the stairs, where he met Ron coming up.  
  
"There you are," said Ron. "I was just coming to wake you up."  
  
"You may still have to," said Harry, yawning.  
  
They met Hermione and Naomi in the common room and headed to breakfast together. They ate slowly. It seemed no one was fully awake yet, not even Hermione. Naomi finally broke the silence and said, "I could hardly sleep last night, I was too excited about starting school today."  
  
The rest of them yawned or nodded in agreement.  
  
After breakfast they collected their books and looked at their schedules for the first time, They saw that they had Charms--all day. Harry and Ron couldn't believe it, thinking there must have been a mistake with the schedules. They were about to ask a teacher when Hermione snapped, "Don't be stupid. It's N.E.W.T level. The important lessons last all day!"  
  
After breakfast, they made their way to Professor Flitwick's classroom. When they got there, they were very displeased to see that they apparently had Charms with the Slytherins.  
  
Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson were standing outside the door with the rest of the students waiting to go inside. The four of them were laughing loudly at something, and Harry had the feeling he didn't want to know what it was. Just then Malfoy noticed Harry.  
  
"Hey, Potter!" he called. "We were just talking about-about..." his face fell and he trailed off as he saw Naomi standing with Harry, her eyes flashing dangerously at him. He shrunk back into the crowd and didn't bother them again until the door opened and Professor Flitwick called, "Come along, now, inside the classroom!"  
  
As they all made their way into the room, Harry thought he heard Malfoy say, "Why did she have to be in N.E.W.T Charms?"  
  
Harry smiled and sat between Ron and Naomi. Hermione sat on Ron's other side. They had seats in the second row.  
  
"Good morning! Before we start, I would like to call roll. Lavender Brown?"  
  
"Here," called Lavandar.  
  
Professor Flitwick continued through the class, but when he got to Naomi's name he stopped. "Naomi Smith?" he called, looking around to see who Naomi Smith was.  
  
Naomi raised her hand and called, "Here, Professor."  
  
"Ah, yes. Professor Dumbledore said you would be here. Welcome, Miss Smith!"  
  
And he continued through to the end.  
  
The lesson was reviewing basic Charms. They did Cheering Charms, Levitation Charms, Summoning Charms, Silencing Charms, and others that they had learned throughout their years at Hogwarts. Naomi knew all of the spells and performed them perfectly, except that she "accidentally" aimed her Engorgement Charm wrong so that it hit Malfoy's head instead of the ink bottle she was supposed to be enlarging. The Gryffindors laughed uncontrollably while Professor Flitwick shrunk Malfoy's head back to normal size. Poor Professor Flitwick was trying desperately to restore order while at the same time demanding who had hit Malfoy with the spell.  
  
It was then that Harry remembered the writing on the bottom of Percy's letter that he had intended to enlarge. Deciding to look at it when he went up to the dormitory that night, he turned his attention to what was going on in the classroom. He watched dimly as Naomi finally took pity on Flitwick and confessed to 'misaiming' the charm. He gave her one night of detention, but he did not seem to think it was too much of an offense. He actually seemed to be hiding a smile.  
  
After the morning lessons, they went back to the Charms class for the rest of the afternoon. After class they went back to the Great Hall for dinner. Harry didn't talk much. He was thinking about that letter.  
  
"Harry," said Naomi after a while, "are you all right? You've hardly said anything at all since Charms."  
  
"Yeah. Well...no." said Harry, putting down his fork. "Listen, I never told you all this, but...I got a letter from Percy, too, Ron."  
  
Ron and Hermione laid down their forks, too, and started at Harry in shocked silence. Naomi, however, said, "What'd he say?"  
  
When Harry gave her a puzzled look, she said quickly, "Hermione told me about him."  
  
"Well, it sounded like he's still a stuck-up tightwad, but there was tiny writing on the bottom of the letter. I couldn't read what it said, but I thought I'd just enlarge the parchment when I got here. I completely forgot about it, though, until Naomi hit Malfoy with that Engorgement Charm."  
  
"Well," said Naomi brightly, ignoring the last comment about the Engorgement Charm, "I'm finished eating, let's go back to the Tower!"  
  
They left the Great Hall and hurried up to the boy's dormitories. Ron, Hermione, and Naomi sat on Harry's bed while Harry dug around in his trunk for the letter. He finally found it down in the bottom and joined them on the bed. He put the letter on the bedspread and pointed his wand at it. "Engorgio," he muttered. The parchment grew until he could read the writing and took the spell off. He picked up the now rather large parchment and read out loud:  
  
Harry- I'm just telling you that Dad and I staged that fight. I was always with the Order and Mum knew it too. She was just acting. We just needed someone to be close to the Minister. I'm sorry I never told you sooner, and I know you probably won't believe me, but it's the truth. I just found out this way to tell you so that the Minister wouldn't know. He'd be so mad at us for having a spy, he'd probably turn against us again. Hopefully he won't find this note. -Percy  
  
Harry looked up. Ron, Hermione, and Naomi looked exactly as he felt. They were gaping at him, and Ron said weakly, "Are you sure you read it right, Harry?"  
  
"Yeah, see for yourself," said Harry, handing Ron the letter. He and Hermione read it then put it down again.  
  
"Do you think it's the truth?" whispered Hermione.  
  
"I think it sounds reasonable enough...but your mum must be a really good actor, Ron." Harry said thoughtfully.  
  
"Well, she did get really mad at Fred and George once when they tried to comfort her-Percy had sent back the Christmas sweater-and they said he was a humongous pile of rat droppings. She practically bit their heads off."  
  
"...It does make sense," said Hermione slowly. "I think there's a reason to believe him...but then, of course, there's a reason not to believe him, too..."  
  
"What do you think, Naomi?" asked Harry, turning to her. She had been silent for a long time. As Harry looked at her, he saw that her knees were drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped tightly around them. She was staring blankly ahead, her face completely expressionless. Harry realized that she hadn't heard him, and nudged her with his foot. She started.  
  
"Hm?" she said, turning to him.  
  
"I said, what d'you think?"  
  
"Oh...well...I agree with Hermione...it does make sense...but-"  
  
"What?" said Ron eagerly.  
  
"Oh, nothing. I was just wondering if maybe it was connected to-never mind. I'm going to bed."  
  
And she got up and left the dormitory without looking back. Hermione sighed. "I'd better go to bed too. And you two, as well. Just get some rest for tomorrow, okay?"  
  
When Hermione was gone, Harry and Ron changed in silence. Harry thought it would be best to shrink the parchment, just so it would be less noticeable. He shrunk it back to its original size, then crawled under the covers. Ron asked him a question, but he wasn't listening. He was thinking about the look on Naomi's face while she had been thinking. He knew she was hiding something from the rest of them. And, without intending to, he thought that she had looked so beautiful. He suddenly realized that this thought had occurred to him, and quickly shut it from his mind. He did not know why he had thought of that.  
  
"Harry! Harry!"Ron's voice cut into his thoughts, brining him out of his trance.  
  
"What?" Harry said, turning to face Ron, who was looking sarcastically downcast.  
  
"You can at least listen when I'm talking to you," he said with a mock-hurt tone.  
  
"Oh, gosh Ron, I'm so sorry!" said Harry in an equally sarcastic voice. "How can I ever make it up to you?"  
  
Ron laughed and chucked his pillow at Harry. "So," said Harry slowly. "What were you saying?"  
  
"Oh, never mind. I'll tell you in the morning. Now give me my pillow back."  
  
×××××  
  
Harry was sitting under a tree on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Naomi sitting with him. She was avoiding his eyes, staring at the ground.  
  
Harry jumped up and spun around as he heard a rustling noise behind him. Seven large Centaurs emerged from the Forest, bow and arrow raised. Harry whipped out his wand and got ready to defend himself and Naomi. She stood by him, a tight grip on her wand, but she did not raise it. Just then one of the Centaurs lowered his bow, pointed to Naomi, and whispered something to one of his colleagues. The second Centaur looked at Naomi and, looking very excited, whispered something to the one next to him. Soon the message-whatever it was-had been passed around the circle, and all of the Centaurs began to babble, pointing at Naomi and looking very excited indeed. They began to advance towards her and Harry readied his wand. But Naomi shot out a hand to lower his wand arm. He looked at her, bewildered, and she looked back with a warning glint in her eyes. She dropped her hand from his arm. She raised one hand into the air, then looked up to the sky. Harry looked up, too. It turned to nighttime in the blink of an eye.  
  
He brought his gaze back down to the earth and saw that all of the Centaurs were gone, and that they were now standing by the lake. Harry recognized this spot. It was where hundreds of Dementors had attacked Sirius, Hermione, and himself.  
  
Harry heard the swish of many cloaks at once, and turned slowly on the spot. Many large, cloaked figures were making their way silently towards Naomi and Harry. He pulled out his wand, ready to perform the Patronus Charm, when he noticed that one Dementor was behaving oddly. One of its hands was groping inside its cloak for something. Then it drew out a wand.  
  
A wand. Dementors did not carry wands. Then it hit him. These were not Dementors at all.  
  
"There is no Dumbledore to save you this time, Potter," said Lucius Malfoy's cold voice. "There is no one at all except for you and nature girl here, but soon not even you will exist."  
  
He raised his wand and shrieked, "Avada Kedavra!"  
  
The spell hit Naomi and she collapsed to the ground. Then the wand turned to Harry...  
  
×××××  
  
Harry sat straight up in bed, breathing very fast and his scar prickling worse than it had been all summer. He clapped a hand to it and moaned, then yanked back his bed hangings and was surprised to see that the sun had just risen. He dressed and hurried downstairs to the common room, where he found Hermione.  
  
"Hermione," he gasped, "Where's Naomi?"  
  
"Harry! Are you all right? You look dreadful!" said Hermione, hurrying over to him.  
  
"I'm fine," Harry snapped impatiently. "Where's Naomi?"  
  
"She upstairs getting dressed. Why? What happened? Sit down," the last sentence was a command. Harry sat and looked up at Hermione.  
  
"You're sure she's okay?"  
  
"Yes, Harry. Naomi is fine. Now will you please tell me what's going on?"  
  
"It's just that I...I don't exactly know."  
  
"Hey, Harry. Are you all right?" Naomi had just come downstairs.  
  
"Yeah...I'm fine." Harry didn't really want to tell Naomi about either one of his dreams concerning her, for in both of them she had been hurt-and it had been he, Harry's, fault.  
  
Ron came downstairs now, yawning and stretching.   
  
"Whassamatter?" he said groggily. "Harry, why didn't you wake me u-u-up?" he said through a huge yawn.  
  
"I thought you'd want to sleep," said Harry, eyeing Ron's appearance. This, of course, was a lie.  
  
More people began to enter the common room from their dormitories, so the four of them found Ginny and set off to the Great Hall for breakfast.  
  
"What have we got first today?" said Harry as they sat down. Hermione pulled out her schedule.  
  
"First we have Herbology, then we've got Care of Magical Creatures." They had all managed to get into N.E.W.T Hebology and Care of Magical Creatures.  
  
They met Neville Longbottom on the way to the greenhouses. He had always been very good at the subject and it was no surprise to Harry that he was in N.E.W.T level.  
  
"Hey, Neville," said Ron, catching up to him.  
  
"Oh, hello, guys! Going to Herbology?"  
  
"Yeah, and I'd guess you are too, Neville," said Hermione warmly. Neville beamed, but the grin faded from his face when he saw Naomi, who was watching in a rather embarrassed silence. It seemed she didn't know what to do while Harry, Ron, and Hermione greeted an old friend that she didn't know.  
  
"Neville," said Harry quickly, "This is Naomi Smith."   
  
"Hi," said Neville awkwardly.  
  
"Hey," said Naomi. "Nice to meet you."  
  
"You too," muttered Neville, turning slightly pink. Harry thought it was quite amusing.  
  
As they walked across the soaking wet grounds, a light drizzle began to fall. They all picked up their pace to get there before it started raining really hard.  
  
They quickly slipped into Greenhouse Three because Professor Sprout was outside, ushering them to hurry up. They all sat at a table together and waited for instructions.  
  
"Good day, class. Today we will be planting Ostrinus Kosma Plants. They are-" she lifted a potted plant onto the table. "-used in some antidotes for rare poisons."  
  
Harry looked at the plant. It was tall, and seemed to have one thick, purple stem with lots of smaller, purple vine-like stems growing around it. There was a large flower at the top that was a deep shade of red, and in the center of the flower was a small, white bud. The whole thing seemed to be a bit...fuzzy, was the best word Harry could think of for it. It was covered in lots of tiny little hairs.  
  
"Now," continued Professor Sprout, "Everyone take a pot and fill it up about halfway with soil. When you get your seedlings from that tray-" she pointed to a large tray in the corner with about thirty purple stems with red balls on top in it. "-you will put them into the pot and fill the rest with fertilizer. Then you will water it, but not too much. Plant as many as you can, I've got another tray for you to plant as well. When you finish planting one of them, place it at the end of your table. I'll be coming around to see how you're doing and to collect your finished pots. Go on, then, start working!"  
  
Everyone began filling the small pots halfway with dirt, then getting a seedling and planting it as Professor Sprout had instructed. She walked around telling people what they were doing wrong or right, and collecting the potted plants. Naomi, Hermione, and Neville seemed to be the best at the job. To be truthful with himself, Harry had expected Naomi to wonder about how it was done or what the plant was. He was a bit surprised when she swiftly and deftly performed the task of potting the Ostrinus Kosmas. But then he remembered the praise Dumbledore had given Naomi during that meeting they had listened to. He said she had gone to school in her homeland and that she knew more than most students in the year.  
  
After the lesson (which had lasted all morning), they all had sore arms from doing so much planting, were covered in dragon manure and dirt, and smelled rather bad from the dragon manure. They hurried off to wash up before lunch. After they ate they went down to Hagrid's hut to have Care of Magical Creatures class.  
  
"C'mon, now! Hurry up!" Hagrid called as a few stragglers made their way to the hut. "Got an interesting lesson for yeh t'day."  
  
Harry felt rather nervous. If Hagrid thought it was interesting, it would be best to back away right then.  
  
"These," Hagrid began, "are-"  
  
"Do they sting, bite, scratch, gore, burn, or in any way hurt people?" said Malfoy coldly.  
  
"Why don't you shut yer mouth and let me finish?" Hagrid growled. "As I was sayin, these here are called Diricawls." He indicated an area of lawn that was marked off by a low wall, about three feet high. "Now, who can tell me 'bout the Diricawl?"  
  
Hermione's hand shot up, to no one's surprise, as did Naomi's.  
  
"Er-you, what's yer name?" said Hagrid, pointing to Naomi.  
  
"Naomi Smith, sir."  
  
"Right! Okay, tell us 'bout 'em, Naomi."  
  
"They're birds, but they can't fly. They can vanish and reappear somewhere else in order to escape danger, and they originated in Mauritius."  
  
"Good! Ten points ter Gryffindor! Now, come up here and have a look at 'em..."  
  
They all moved forward and saw about fifteen small, plump, very feathery birds hopping around. Every now and then one of them disappeared in a little puff of feathers and reappeared in a different spot. Harry supposed there was a spell on the wall to keep them from poofing themselves out.  
  
"Now, Muggles knew these birds as 'dodo birds', but 'cause they always disappeared, th' Muggles thought they had hunted the birds to extinction." He snorted, then continued the lesson, which proved to be fascinating.  
  
They all ate dinner slowly that evening and made their way up to the common room. They saw that all of the Gryffindors were crowding around the bulletin board. Ron was the tallest, so he looked over all of the heads of the students to read the new sign.  
  
"First Hogsmeade trip," he read. "October fifth. Great! It's not too far away!"  
  
Harry, Ron, Naomi, and Hermione sat in chairs by the window. Naomi listened while the others talked about the village. Harry noticed her silence and a sudden thought struck him. What if she didn't get permission to go?  
  
"Naomi," he said, and she jerked out of the sort of trance she had been in. "Did you get your permission form signed to go to Hogsmeade?"  
  
"Wha- Oh, that. I'll ask McGonagall if I can go." She suddenly sat up very straight. "Oh my gosh! I forgot! I have to do Flitwick's detention today!" And she flew out of the common room.  
  
"Ask...McGonagall?" said Ron. "Why, did she forget to ask her parents to sign the form?"  
  
Hermione looked very uncomfortable. "I'm going to bed," she muttered. "'Night."  
  
And she dashed up the girl's staircase.  
  
"What was that about?" said Ron, staring dumbly after her. Harry didn't answer. He thought he had an idea of what it was about. He wasn't sure, but he thought he knew. 


	10. chapter 10

Chapter 10: Cho Chang  
  
It was about 10:45. Harry was sitting alone in his favorite chair by the common room fire, thinking. Naomi is hiding something, I'm sure of it, he thought. And Hermione knows, too! This made him feel a bit angry. Why don't they just tell Ron and me? Don't they trust us? But...then again, if it's Naomi's personal business, she doesn't have to tell the whole world if she doesn't want to.  
  
Just then the portrait opened and Naomi came into the common room. She moaned and collapsed onto the couch, rubbing her arm. She had a smear of chalk on her face.  
  
"Tired?" Harry asked mildly.  
  
"Yes." Naomi said, not opening her eyes.  
  
"What'd you have to do?"  
  
"Copy lines onto the chalkboard. My arm is killing me!" She opened her eyes and looked at Harry. "Why are you up so late?"  
  
He shrugged. "Just...thinking."  
  
"Oh." She didn't ask what he was thinking about, and Harry was grateful for it.  
  
"Well, I guess we'd better go to sleep soon. What have we got tomorrow?"  
  
She closed her eyes again, thinking. "Um...I know this...I remember reading it...hold on-Oh yeah, it was Transfiguration all day."  
  
"Well, that's not so bad. When have we got Potions?"  
  
"Friday."  
  
"Oh, great. Right before the weekend. The whole weekend will be ruined from all the homework Snape's going to give us!"  
  
Naomi sighed. "Well, at least that means we have Defense against the Dark Arts on Thursday, so we don't have to wait all week for that lesson."  
  
"...True."  
  
"Well, goodnight, Harry."  
  
"See you in the morning." Harry watched Naomi as she swept up the girl's staircase. He sighed, heaved himself out of the chair, and headed up to bed.  
  
××××××  
  
Harry had the dream about himself attacking Naomi once more that night. He woke up, breathing fast, then eventually managed to fall asleep again. But when he fell asleep he had the other dream where Lucius Malfoy killed Naomi. He shouted and woke up, tearing back his bed hangings, only to find four other people already awake. Dean, Seamus, Neville, and Ron were staring at him, looking worried.  
  
"You okay, Harry?" asked Dean.  
  
"Did you have a nightmare?" asked Neville.  
  
"Is it...You-Know-Who, Harry?" said Seamus anxiously.  
  
"No-it's just-just a nightmare, guys." But he gave Ron a significant look as he turned to get dressed. The two of them hurried up to change and get downstairs. They found Hermione, who was waiting for Naomi. Ron started to tell her to go and get Naomi, but Harry pulled him away, calling back to Hermione, "We'll meet you in the Great Hall!"  
  
"What was that for?" panted Ron as he struggled to keep up with Harry's fast pace.  
  
"I'll tell you in a second...just grab some toast or something and we'll walk around."  
  
Ron dashed into the Hall and came out with four pieces of toast. He handed two to Harry, then asked, as they climbed the marble staircase, "So...was it another nightmare?"  
  
"...Yes, two of them," said Harry softly (he didn't want to be overheard).  
  
"Well then, why couldn't you tell Hermione and Naomi?"  
  
"I don't want to tell it to Naomi. Don't look at me like that, I have a reason! The first night back I had a dream that I was walking down one of the corridors and I heard someone scream. I went to see who it was, and when I turned the corner, I saw Naomi on the floor with Malfoy over her, pointing his wand at her. I stunned Malfoy, and Naomi was unconscious. Then I looked back at Malfoy and he changed into another person, like he had been taking Polyjuice Potion or something, and-" Harry stopped as a group of third-year Ravenclaws walked by.  
  
"Who'd he turn into?" Ron asked impatiently.  
  
"Ron...he turned into-me!"  
  
Ron stopped in his tracks and turned to Harry, gaping at him.  
  
"So now do you see why I didn't want to tell Naomi?"  
  
"Yeah" said Ron faintly, resuming his walking. "So what about the other one?"  
  
Harry explained the other dream as well as he could. Ron was again gaping at him as they reached the door to the Transfiguration classroom. "And," Harry finished, "I've had each of these dreams twice, Ron. Remember the dream about the Department of Mysteries corridor? I had that one loads of times, and it came true!"  
  
Ron bit his lip. "But, Harry, about that first one...you can fight the Imperious Curse, so none of You-Know-Who's followers could make you..."  
  
"That's what worries me."  
  
×××××××  
  
Once everyone had gathered outside the door to McGonagall's classroom, Ron and Harry were acting normal. They had decided it was best not to let anyone know that anything was wrong. "But we can tell Ginny," Harry had said earlier. "She might be able to help."  
  
The lesson was rather uneventful. All they did was take notes, and everyone was glad for the break when they headed off to lunch. They ate quickly and hurried back to the classroom, for all of them were eager to start transfiguring. They learned the spell 'Avifors', which turned rather small things-like parts of a statue-into birds. It took a while to get it down, but Harry finally managed to turn his large stone into an eagle. He couldn't change it back, though, and McGonagall had to fix it for him.  
  
They had some free time after dinner, as everyone had been let out early. The teachers told them to enjoy about an hour of free time, but to be back in the Great Hall by 6:30. Hermione, Ron, Naomi, and Harry found Ginny and they all went out to the grounds. Ron had a watch, and Hermione said that they should start back to the Hall about ten minutes before 6:30.  
  
They all took a walk around the lake, talking aimlessly. When they were all the way on the opposite side of the lake, they met Cho Chang coming around the other way.  
  
"Er-Hi," said Cho, looking highly embarrassed. "Harry, could I-talk to you for a minute?" She looked at Naomi, but didn't say anything. Ron shrugged, and Ginny said, "Sure. Just catch up with us when you're done, Harry." They all started around the lake again. Harry looked casually at Cho.  
  
"What?" he asked. He didn't really want to talk to her.  
  
"I was-was just wondering...well, how's your summer been, first of all?"  
  
"Miserable, as always. How about you?"  
  
"Oh...well, I'm sorry you had such a crummy summer, then...Mine was okay, I guess. Michael Corner and I broke up...he was just too young, you know, he's only in fifth year."  
  
Harry said nothing. He couldn't care less about Cho and Michael Corner. His friends were getting farther away, and he wanted to still have some time to talk to them.  
  
"So...there's a Hogsmeade trip coming up..." Cho said timidly.  
  
"Yeah, there is."  
  
"Are you going with anyone?"  
  
"Just my friends, you know, Ron, Hermione, Naomi..."  
  
"Is she that girl that was with you?" said Cho, turning around to look at Naomi's retreating back.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"I've never seen her around. Is she in fifth year or something?"  
  
"She's a sixth year."  
  
"Why haven't I met her before?"  
  
"Because she's a new student, Cho," said Harry in an exasperated tone. "Well, I guess I'd better be going-"  
  
"No, wait! I wanted to ask you if...if..."  
  
"If you want to ask me something, ask it!"  
  
"If you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me."  
  
Harry had seen this coming. He was prepared to answer.  
  
"No, I don't."  
  
Cho looked like she had been slapped in the face. Apparently she had never been turned down before.  
  
"Sorry, Cho, but it just didn't work out last time, remember?"  
  
"Yes, but I just wanted to try again, I mean-"  
  
"I don't want to."  
  
"Why not? I thought-"  
  
"See, the only thing is that when I was going out with you, I was always worrying about looking stupid in front of you or making you upset or something, and then there was exams coming up, and it was just too much. Now my godfather is dead and I don't want to go out with someone who's going to burst into tears every time I talk to them, okay?"  
  
Harry said this all very fast, because he felt like it had been building up inside him for a very long time. Cho's eyes began to fill with tears, and Harry snapped, "See? I talk to you and you start crying. Now, I have to go catch up to my friends." And he ran off to meet the others. He didn't look back one single time.  
  
"How'd it go?" asked Ron.  
  
"Great," said Harry brightly. "She asked me to go out with her again and I turned her down, and I finally gave her what she deserved. I mean, she was always bursting into tears every five minutes and also whenever I tried to talk to her. It was ridiculous! So that's basically what I told her."  
  
Ron and Ginny were doubled over laughing, and Hermione looked torn between telling Harry off for being so rude to a girl and congratulating him on telling off Cho. Naomi, however, was staring out into the trees, looking as though she hadn't heard anything Harry just said. She whispered urgently, "Did you see it? Any of you?" 


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Murderous Meeting  
  
"See what?" said Harry in a puzzled tone.  
  
"I thought I saw..." She headed towards the trees in the forest.  
  
"Naomi, no! You're not allowed in there." Harry ran forward and grabbed her arm. He didn't want her to go in there and get hurt. She looked up at him (she was just a few inches shorter than Harry was), then back into the forest.  
  
"I know I'm not allowed, but...All right. I won't go. But I thought I saw something..." she sighed. "Never mind. We should head back to the Hall."  
  
As they all headed off to the Great Hall, Harry and Naomi fell behind Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.  
  
"Are you going to tell me what you saw in there?" Harry asked her.  
  
She smiled. "Not yet. I'm sorry, but I'm just not ready to tell everything yet."  
  
Harry nodded. "I understand."  
  
Naomi beamed at him. "Thanks, Harry."  
  
They walked the rest of the way in silence. Finally, just before they entered the Hall, Harry said, "I wonder what this is about? Why they told us to come back, I mean."  
  
"No idea."  
  
They entered the Hall and seated themselves with Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table. According to Ron's watch, it was now 6:28. They talked among themselves until, at exactly 6:30, Dumbledore stood up.  
  
"Thank you all for coming. I hope you enjoyed your free time-" there was a cheer from the students "-and I would like to make just a few announcements. First, as you all well know, there is a Hogsmeade weekend coming up. I have one request, and that is that no one wander around the village alone. Always have someone else with you. This is for reasons that I'm sure you all are aware of.  
  
"Next, I would like to say that we will be having the last ball that I mentioned at the start-of-term feast on May the twelfth. I'm not sure if I mentioned this at the feast, but I will say it now anyway. The balls will only be open to fourth years and above. Unless," an angry outburst had come from everyone under fourth year, and Dumbledore raised his voice to be heard over them. "Unless, of course, you are invited to the ball by someone fourth year or above.  
  
"Finally, I would like to state that Quidditch try-outs will be held on Saturday. Exact times will be posted on the notice boards. I believe that is all. If any more announcements should arise, they shall be posted in the house common rooms. Now, off to bed!"  
  
As Harry stood up to leave, a voice said behind him, "Potter, Smith-If you'd stay behind for a moment?"  
  
Harry turned and saw that it was Professor McGonagall. She was looking as though she was trying to make sure no one overheard and became suspicious. "Yes, yes, Weasley and Granger, you should come, too," she said as Ron and Hermione looked curiously at her.  
  
They stayed behind and-after all of the students had filtered out-Dumbledore told them to follow him. He led them into a chamber off to the side of the hall, which Harry had been in on a few occasions before this. Dumbledore conjured up some chairs by the fire and motioned for them to sit. They all took a seat, Ron and Hermione on one side of the fireplace, and Naomi and Harry on the other. Dumbledore took the seat directly opposite the fire. He looked around at them all.  
  
"I know you are all wondering why you are here."  
  
They all nodded slowly, Ron making a noise in his throat that sounded like "Mmm-hmm."  
  
"Well, I suppose it would be best to just get down to business. Harry and Ron, I understand that you, Ginny, Fred, and George wandered into the Black Corridor last August." He looked directly at Harry.  
  
"I-I didn't know it was called that."  
  
"Yes, well, the name is not that important. What I must say is that you-don't look so horrified, Mr. Weasley, you are not in trouble!"  
  
Ron sighed and looked extremely relieved.  
  
"Your curiosity is sometimes good, but sometimes bad, as you may have discovered. When you went into that corridor, I don't believe you realized that the very last room on the hall was where Naomi was staying."  
  
Harry and Ron gaped at Naomi. She smiled and winked, then turned her attention back to Dumbledore.  
  
"You came very close to discovering her. And I must say that Alastor probably would have laid the blame on her. I know it sounds very unjust, but Alastor simply has trouble trusting people. You know how he is.  
  
"Harry, you kept a very level head, even after you and Fred were the only ones left. This shows even more your bravery and skills. If you are wondering why some of the things that happened did happen, please feel free to ask." Dumbledore looked around at them all, seeming to know that Ron and Harry were bursting with questions to ask. Ron went first.  
  
"Why did that door close after George disappeared?" he asked.  
  
"Miss Granger-?" said Dumbledore, obviously offering the question to her.  
  
"Well..." she blushed. "I closed it. I didn't know you were in there!" she added quickly.  
  
"Why weren't you with us when we found it?" said Ron angrily.  
  
"Because I was getting food to bring to Naomi! I'm sorry, it was an accident!"  
  
"It's quite all right, Mr. Weasley. As Miss Granger has said, it was an accident. Any other questions?"  
  
"I've got one," said Harry. "Why did everyone disappear and end up in that cage?"  
  
"Ah," said Dumbledore, for the rest of them also looked like they wanted to know as well. "You see, that corridor has many secrets in it. There have been extra safety precautions to make sure that no one can get to them. You see, if you are not an official member of the Order, there are certain things that will take you to that light cell. It is rather like the high-security vaults at Gringott's."  
  
"But the key was right there!" said Harry.  
  
"Well, we learned that you were down there, and we knew you would need to get out once your fellows began to disappear. So even before George vanished, we had a key in there for you. We made sure that it would be a test of your wits in order to get your friends out. If, for whatever reason, everyone was captured, we would, of course, have taken you out." He smiled at them, then said, "If there is anything else you would like to know, please never hesitate to ask me. And, Naomi," he added, in a slightly quieter tone. "Have you told them yet-?"  
  
"No, sir," said Naomi, hanging her head.  
  
"It is quite all right. You mustn't tell before you are ready. To bed with you all!" he clapped his hands and ushered them out of the chamber.  
  
As they made their way out of the Great Hall, no one spoke. Harry felt a bit stupid for taking that corridor so seriously while he had been down there, and Ron seemed to feel the same way. By the time they got to the deserted common room, however, they were talking about Quidditch try-outs.  
  
"Are you going to go out for the team, Naomi?" asked Harry. He really hoped she said yes.  
  
"Are you kidding? Of course I am! What spots are open?"  
  
"I think it's two Beaters and two Chasers, what with Ginny on the team and all," said Harry. He was quite taken aback. She seemed to know all about Quidditch, too.  
  
"Nope, it's one Beater, two Chasers, and one Keeper," said Ron. When Hermione and Harry looked questioningly at him, he said, "I'm thinking of moving to Beater instead of Keeper."  
  
"But you did really well that one game-"  
  
"Yeah, that one game. I did really crummy the rest of the time."  
  
"So Seeker's not open?" said Naomi, looking disappointed.  
  
"No way, that's my job!" said Harry.  
  
"Fine, then, I'll go out for Chaser. I'm better at Seeker, though."  
  
"You play?" Harry finally forced himself to ask.  
  
"Of course! I was on the school team. We were the best in the kingdom. Well, good night!"  
  
She and Hermione swept off to the girl's dorms. Ron looked at Harry.  
  
"Did she just say 'kingdom?'"  
  
×××××  
  
Harry had the two dreams again that night, and he was feeling more and more uneasy about them. Naomi was quickly becoming one of his best friends, and he didn't want the dreams to come true.  
  
That day they had Defense against the Dark Arts. They all crowded outside the door, waiting for Fleur to let them in. The Slytherins had Defense against the Dark Arts with them, and Harry thought that at least they'd get some practical lessons in if they had class with Death Eaters' children.  
  
They finally entered the classroom, and Harry sat in the front row with Ron, Hermione, and Naomi. The Slytherins all sat on the other side of the room.  
  
"Hello, class!" cried Fleur happily. "I'm Professor Delacour, but you may call me Fleur if you want, because I don't think I'll ever get used to the 'Professor' title." She smiled around at them all, and Harry grinned back.  
  
"Now, since we all-well, most of us, anyway-" here she shot a nasty look at the Slytherins "now need to defend ourselves more than ever, I'll be teaching you mostly about dueling skills. Now, most of you had a dueling club with Professor Lockhart-not like he could teach you much, though-in second year. I don't know if you really learned anything from him, as he didn't know what he was doing himself, but I'm here to brush up on those skills."  
  
Quite a few of them laughed at her references to Lockhart. This seemed to encourage her more, and she looked much happier as she continued.  
  
"Now, everyone put your books and things like that away, and take out your wands. Now stand up, and I'll clear the floor."  
  
Everyone did as they were told, and with a sweep of her wand, Fleur had cleared the desks away against the walls.  
  
"Now, I need two volunteers. Who wants to come up first?"  
  
A few people raised their hands, including Harry, Naomi, Neville, and Malfoy.  
  
"Okay, Naomi, you come up here with...let's see...Harry."  
  
Harry grinned at Naomi, and she muttered, "Wish I could have gone against Malfoy. I would have beaten him to a pulp!"  
  
Harry barely suppressed a laugh as he and Naomi walked to the center of the room.  
  
"Now," said Fleur. "I want you both do start the duel properly, then demonstrate a Disarming Charm. On the count of three. One-" Harry and Naomi bowed to each other. "Two-" they raised their wands in front of them like swords. "Three!"  
  
"Expelliarmus!" They both shouted the spell at the same time, but Naomi, it seemed, had expected this. She had aimed a little higher than usual. Then, "Protego!"  
  
Naomi's spell hit Harry in the chest and he felt his wand fly from his hand. His spell was simply absorbed in the shield from Naomi's Shield Charm.  
  
"Wonderful!" cried Fleur happily, dancing around. "That was brilliant, everyone, did you see what she did? Fifteen points to Gryffindor!"  
  
The Slytherins booed and hissed, but the Gryffindors were shouting and cheering.  
  
"You all right, Harry?" said Fleur, picking him up from the floor where he had fallen.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine." He and Naomi went back to the outer circle. Most of the students had seated themselves on desks, and the two of them did the same.  
  
"I need two more volunteers for the Disarming Charm! Who's next?"  
  
The class was great fun, and everyone came back early after lunch so that they wouldn't miss a minute of the afternoon classes. The afternoon proceeded in the same way, except that Fleur told them to use various hexes and jinxes other than the Disarming spell.  
  
They headed to dinner, all talking excitedly about how great Defense against the Dark Arts was going to be. While they were eating dinner, one of the school owls landed in front of Naomi, holding out it's leg so she could remove the letter tied to it. "But...doesn't mail come in the mornings?"  
  
"Sometimes it doesn't," Harry said hurriedly, "What's it say?"  
  
Naomi read the note, her eyes getting wider in about two seconds. She finished reading the note and looked up, looking very unnerved about something. She tucked the note away and didn't say anything else the whole meal, not even when one of them tried to ask her a question.  
  
××××××  
  
Harry, once again, was walking down the corridor when he heard someone scream. He ran to see who it was and saw Naomi crumpled on the ground. He started toward her attacker, wand raised. "Stupef-"  
  
"Harry! Wake up!"  
  
Harry opened his eyes and saw Hermione standing over him, looking very pale.  
  
"Harry, get up! She's gone! Naomi isn't in her bed or in the common room!" she hissed.  
  
Harry leaped out of bed and flew down the stairs (he had fallen asleep in his clothes, too tired from lessons to change.), Hermione close on his heels. "Where are you going?" she whispered.  
  
He didn't answer, but hurtled through the portrait hole, thinking desperately about his dream. Which corridor had it been? Yes...yes, this was it...it was one of the corridors that led to the marble staircase in the entrance hall. Harry heard someone scream. He sprinted around the corner and saw Naomi on the floor. She screamed again, and Malfoy raised his wand to attack...  
  
"NO!" Harry shouted as he ran towards Malfoy. Malfoy turned, saw Harry running at him, and quickly shouted an order that Harry didn't understand, as he wasn't really concentrating on what was being said. He raised his wand and shouted, "Stupef-" but he never got the whole spell out. A very strong pair of arms grabbed Harry and pinned his arms behind his back. He felt his wand wrenched from his hand and struggled hopelessly against Crabbe's strong grip. Malfoy smirked at him, then turned back to Naomi, his wand raised once more.  
  
"Now," he said softly. "I'll ask you one more time-"  
  
"Never," spat Naomi, and she struck him hard across the face. Malfoy staggered back and looked outraged. Goyle began to move forward to help him, but Harry was almost out of Crabbe's grip. Goyle realized this and helped to hold back Harry. Naomi had taken advantage of this moment and slipped away, towards the marble staircase. Malfoy shouted a spell that knocked her to the floor again, then snapped his fingers. Crabbe left Goyle to hold Harry and moved forward to Malfoy and Naomi.  
  
Harry broke free of Goyle's grip and began sprinting to Naomi. Goyle caught up with him, however, and held him back again. Harry struggled as he watched helplessly. Malfoy was standing over Naomi, looking down at her with a very menacing stare. Crabbe approached her, but she was too quick. She kicked out and struck Malfoy's ankles. He cried out in pain and fell backwards, tumbling all the way down the stairs. He picked himself up and yelled angrily at Crabbe. Crabbe picked Naomi up off the ground and threw her down the stairs as well. She didn't even hit a step until the very bottom. She landed hard on the floor of the entrance hall, and lay there, perfectly still. Harry screamed, once again, "NO!" and kicked Goyle hard in the shin. Goyle howled in pain, grabbing his leg, as Harry sprinted down the stairs, two at a time, and dropped to his knees beside Naomi.  
  
He felt a sharp pain in his side and grunted as Malfoy kicked him away. Malfoy looked down at Naomi and snarled, "Get up."  
  
She didn't move. He kicked her over, and her eyelids fluttered open. She slowly sat up, and Malfoy grabbed her and threw her against the wall. She smashed into it and slumped to the floor, blood now flowing from her nose. Malfoy turned on his heel and stomped off to the dungeons, Crabbe and Goyle close behind him. 


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: The Try-Outs  
  
Harry ran over to Naomi's still form and gently picked her up. She didn't move. He laid her head in his lap and watched her face anxiously. She still did not get up. Harry didn't know what to do. He finally fetched his wand from the top of the staircase and came back down. He pointed it at her and muttered, "Mobilicorpus."  
  
She floated in front of him all the way up to the portrait. Harry quickly gave the password to the Fat Lady, ignoring her cry of, "what happened?" and carefully took the spell off Naomi. She gently dropped to the floor and lay there. Harry climbed into the portrait hole, stuck his head into the common room, and whispered, "Hermione, you there?"  
  
Hermione jumped up from the chair she had been sitting in and rushed over to him. "Harry! What happened? Where is she? Are you hurt?"  
  
"I'll tell you when I get inside. Now help me out, here."  
  
Hermione climbed out of the common room and helped Harry get an unconscious Naomi through the portrait hole. Harry laid her on the couch and sat on the floor next to her, along with Hermione.  
  
"What happened?" she said anxiously. Harry described everything that had happened in the entrance hall, and Hermione looked absolutely outraged by the time he was through. "Why, that slimy, good-for-nothing, self-centered, sneaky, cowardly scumbag!" she said furiously. "Harry, report it to Dumbledore! And why didn't you take her to the hospital wing?"  
  
"I will report it to Dumbledore, you mark my words." said Harry darkly. "And I didn't take her to the hospital wing because it's the middle of the night, and I wouldn't be able to give a believable reason why Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Naomi were there, and why I showed up when I did."  
  
"Why did you show up when you did?"  
  
Harry explained nervously about the dreams he had been having. Hermione seemed particularly interested in the fact that it had really been Harry who attacked Naomi in his dream. "But you didn't hurt her at all!" she whispered.  
  
"Well, it didn't happen exactly the same as the dream, anyway. Maybe it was just-"  
  
"Maybe," Hermione cut him off, "Maybe the dream was combining a whole lot of different things. Not just tonight...if you have it again, tell me, won't you?"  
  
"Yeah, of course I will."  
  
Naomi stirred and opened her eyes a little bit. Harry immediately pushed the hair out of her face and said quietly, "You okay?"  
  
She moaned. "No." Harry noticed her nose was still bleeding. Hermione bit her lip, thinking hard.  
  
"Harry," she said suddenly, "did you buy any Nosebleed Nougat from Fred and George's shop? The antidote end of it should help."  
  
Harry nodded and, feeling very grateful that he had bought the Nosebleed Nougat from the shop, sprinted up to the dorm. He quietly found some of it and slipped back downstairs. He didn't want to wake everyone else up.  
  
He found Hermione asking Naomi what had happened, exactly, so he didn't say anything as he handed Hermione the Nougat.  
  
"You know that note I got at dinner?" Naomi was saying dully. "Well, it said 'meet me in the entrance hall at 10:00' and it didn't have a signature. I went, but I took my wand and I was going to attack if it was a setup. 'Course, I wasn't expecting Malfoy along with Crabbe and Goyle, so they got my wand. Malfoy asked me-you won't believe this-he asked me first to go to the Christmas ball with him. Then he asked if I would help him and his father get close enough to hurt Harry. I couldn't believe he'd even ask, so I just turned him down, even though Crabbe and Goyle were there as his 'threat'. I didn't expect him to use them to attack at all, I thought they were just there to make sure..." she trailed off and closed her eyes again.  
  
Hermione gave her the reviving end of the Nosebleed Nougat, and the blood stopped coming from her nose. She seemed completely drained of energy, and just laid on the couch. Hermione went upstairs to sleep, as Naomi had told her and Harry to get some rest. Harry refused, however. He didn't think Naomi should be left alone in her condition.  
  
Harry had fallen asleep on the hearthrug after a few hours. He woke up as a beam of moonlight fell across his face. He looked over to Naomi and saw that she was awake-and looked like she had more energy than before.  
  
"Hey," he whispered, moving over to her.  
  
"Hey," she whispered back.  
  
"You feeling better?"  
  
"Yeah, lots better. I'm going to see if I can walk around."  
  
"Are you sure? Here, I'll help you."  
  
She slid off the couch and stood unsteadily, hanging on to Harry. She slowly took a step, and Harry let go of her. He was still ready to catch her if she fell. She did fall, and he quickly grabbed her. She gasped. "No, I can't do it..."  
  
Harry helped her sit down on the floor with him, and for a while they just sat there. Harry was sitting cross-legged, with Naomi resting her head on his chest, her eyes closed. He held her close, thinking that no matter how he denied it, she was beautiful. As he looked down at her still, sleeping face, he felt a surge of rage toward Malfoy. How could he do something this extreme? He had always been unpleasant, but Harry hadn't ever thought of him being capable of much more than that. It was a rather frightening thought.  
  
×××××××  
  
It was the crack of dawn when Naomi woke up. Harry was leaning against the hearth now, Naomi still sleeping on his chest. She sat up at looked over at him, sitting on her knees.  
  
"Thank you so much for saving me," she whispered, after a short silence.  
  
"Are you kidding? We're friends now. Friends look out for each other."  
  
Naomi smiled, tears in her eyes. She bit her lip hard, then said, "I'm sorry."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"For being stupid. I should have told you about that note."  
  
"We all make mistakes."  
  
She smiled and bit her lip again, tears now streaming down her face. "Oh, Harry," she whispered. "You don't know how much it means to me that you make me feel like I belong here."  
  
"Of course you belong here! You and Hermione are at the top of every class! Hey, you even beat me in a duel!"  
  
She laughed for the first time since Fleur's lesson the previous day. Harry loved her laugh. It made him think of bells chiming. "Hey," he said slowly. "Did you ever ask McGonagall about the Hogsmeade trip?"  
  
"No, I forgot...I'll do it this weekend. Let's see if I can walk now..."  
  
Harry helped her up and, after a few tries, she was walking slowly around the common room. She grinned at him and said, "Looks like I'll be able to try out for Quidditch after all!"  
  
They both laughed. Harry started when a voice behind him said, "What's so funny?"  
  
Ron had come downstairs. Harry remembered that he had no idea about what had happened last night.  
  
He was saved answering by Hermione's arrival. "Naomi!" she cried. "You're better! That's great!"  
  
"Whadda mean, better? What happened?" said Ron. Harry almost laughed out loud at how Ron had no idea what was going on, or what happened.  
  
"You tell him, Hermione," said Harry.  
  
By the time they had reached the Great Hall, Ron had been filled in on everything. Hermione had had to explain it in whispered segments, for she didn't want anyone else to hear. He kept throwing dirty looks at the Slytherin table, where Malfoy was laughing heartily with the rest.  
  
An owl arrived for Naomi again, but this time it was with the morning post. It was a large, gray-and-white owl. He had never seen one like it before. After she took off the letter, the owl flew off again. Naomi was looking very excited about something. "It's from home. I've only ever seen those owls back at home."  
  
She opened the letter and read it. She looked highly excited by the time she finished, but she didn't tell the rest of them what it was about. She laid down the letter, and Harry grabbed it to read. The only problem was, he couldn't possibly read it. It was in some language that he had never seen before.  
  
"What's this all about?" Harry asked, indicating the letter.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"It's something, I know it is."  
  
"I don't have to tell you if I don't want to," Naomi said in an amused tone.  
  
"Fine then, be that way." Harry gave her back the letter and finished eating.  
  
They all headed to the dungeons, and as they descended deeper and deeper they all felt more and more gloomy. They reached Snape's classroom and joined the rest of the Slytherins and Gryffindors outside. Ron muttered in a very bad mood, "Are there any classes we don't have with them?"  
  
Snape beckoned them inside the room, and they filed in. He immediately lectured them about how bad grades would earn the person a permanent expulsion from his class, and how important this level of Potions was. Then he set them off making a very complicated potion. Harry thought he did reasonably well, as Snape spent most of the time in his office rather than breathing down Harry's neck.  
  
They, unfortunately, had to go back after lunch to finish their potions (which had been left to simmer while they ate).  
  
When they finally got out of class, everyone was rejoicing the arrival of the weekend. Of course, they had a very large amount of homework, but Harry didn't care. It had been a hectic week, and he needed some time off. If anything could have made him even happier than he was at the idea of spending the next day doing nothing but Quidditch try-outs, it was what came next.  
  
Just as they came out of the dungeon, Professor McGonagall approached them. "Potter!" she called. "I just need a word-you're not in trouble, for heaven's sake don't look at me like that!" She hurried up to him and said with a huge grin on her face, "Potter, you are the new Quidditch captain for the Gryffindor team!"  
  
Harry stared dumbly at her for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Good one, Professor!"  
  
"No, Potter, you are the new captain! So I suggest you start arranging try-outs for tomorrow!"  
  
Harry gaped at her. "S-seriously?"  
  
McGonagall sighed. "Yes, Potter, seriously."  
  
Hermione and Naomi both squealed and began jumping up and down, crying "Yay! Harry's captain!" and so on. Ron looked very pleased, which Harry hadn't expected.  
  
"Good job, mate," said Ron, clapping him on the back. "Glad it was you and not me. Can you imagine the chaos if I was in charge?" Harry laughed and headed to the Great Hall for dinner with Ron and a still squealing Naomi and Hermione.  
  
By the time they sat down, Naomi and Hermione had stopped squealing and were now just jabbering on and on.  
  
"Will you two shut up?" said Harry, unable to suppress a grin.  
  
"No! If you're captain that means I'm on the team for sure!" said Naomi, nudging his side and winking at him.  
  
"Whoa, now, not so fast...I've go to see if you're any good first...see if you make the cut..."  
  
"Oh, I'm sure she will," said Hermione, trying hard not to laugh. Naomi collapsed into a fit of giggles with her face on the table and that set the two of them off again.  
  
Harry looked helplessly at Ron, who rolled his eyes and began to eat.  
  
×××××××  
  
The next day was sunny and bright with a little bit of clouds in the sky. The conditions couldn't be more perfect for playing Quidditch. He made his way to the pitch, feeling happy and excited. He found Naomi, Ron, and Ginny already down there.  
  
"Hey," he said. "What positions do you want to go for, Ginny? Naomi?"  
  
"I'm going for Chaser," said Ginny  
  
"Yeah, me, too. Seeking and Chasing are what I do best." Naomi said brightly.  
  
Just then someone else came out of the dressing rooms. Harry's jaw dropped. Hermione.  
  
"H-Hermione?" he stammered. "Are you trying out?"  
  
Hermione blushed. "Well, Ron wanted me to, but really, I'm not that good..."  
  
"We'll see," said Harry, looking around to see if anyone else was coming. Professor McGonagall was making her way down to the pitch along with a few other people he couldn't make out.  
  
When they reached the field, Harry saw that it was Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and-  
  
His heart sank. It was Colin Creevey.  
  
"Hiya, Harry! I'm going to try out for the team!" said Colin excitedly.  
  
Harry rolled his eyes and turned to Professor McGonagall. "Is this everyone, Professor?"  
  
"Yes, Potter."  
  
"Okay! Everyone, listen up!" shouted Harry. They all went silent and turned to him. "I want current team members to help me out here, so Ron and Ginny-"  
  
Ron and Ginny came forward and stood with him. "All right, the spots we have open are two beaters and two chasers. Does anyone know which spot they'd like to try for?"  
  
"I'm going for Chaser," said Naomi.  
  
"Dean and I are going for Beater," said Seamus.  
  
"I think I'll go for Chaser, Harry!" said Colin excitedly.  
  
"Chaser, I guess," said Hermione, blushing furiously.  
  
"Okay, well, we're going to play a mini-game here, but since there's eight people, we'll have to have two teams of four...First, let's have Naomi and Hermione as Chasers for the red team, and Ginny and Colin, you be Chasers for the gold team. Ron and I will be the Keepers, Ron for gold, me for red. Dean, you'll be the Beater on the red team with me, and Seamus, you be Beater on gold team with Ron."  
  
Everyone divided into their teams, and Harry fetched the Quaffle from the crate. He paused for a minute, then decided to use only one Bludger. He handed the Beaters their bats, then gave the Quaffle to Naomi to hold.  
  
"Professor McGonagall, if you'd let the Bludger go when we get up there-"  
  
"Of course, Potter," she said briskly.  
  
"Okay, mount your brooms and get in position!"  
  
He and Ron sped to opposite sides of the pitch, and Naomi, Hermione, Ginny, and Colin positioned themselves in the middle of it. The Beaters floated slightly above their teams. Professor McGonagall released the Bludger and threw the Quaffle into the air, and the game began. Harry watched closely from his end. Naomi passed the Quaffle to Hermione, who passed it back. They were doing pretty well. Naomi threw it towards the goal, but Ron blocked it and threw it out to Ginny. Ginny flew about halfway down the field, then passed it backwards to Colin, who almost dropped it. Colin flew down the field, but Naomi snatched it from his hands. She hurtled toward the goal and put one past Ron. He flew down and caught it, then chucked it back into the field. Ginny caught it and sped toward Harry. He easily blocked it and threw it back to Naomi.  
  
The game went on for quite a while, until Harry finally called for them to stop. The score was Red-30 to Gold-10.  
  
"Okay, that was great," Harry called. "Come on, back to the ground now!"  
  
He waited for everyone to gather around him back on the ground, then said, "Okay, that's all I need for now. I'll probably post the team members on the board by tomorrow. See you around, then!"  
  
He put away the equipment as the rest of them walked up to the castle. When he came out of the storage room he found Naomi waiting for him, though.  
  
"Hey." she said.  
  
"Hi. Why didn't you go up with the rest of them?"  
  
"'Cause I'm waiting for you, you weirdo!"  
  
Harry grinned and they started up to the castle together. When they were about halfway there, Harry decided to ask her.  
  
"What was that letter about yesterday morning?"  
  
"Oh...er-my brother and sister."  
  
"Okay...um...why wasn't it in English?"  
  
"Because we don't speak English where I come from."  
  
"Really? Well, you're really good at it if you don't speak it at home."  
  
She smiled at him. "You're such a suck-up, Harry Potter!" She hit his arm gently and started running up to the castle.  
  
"Hey! Wait up!" He sprinted after her, and was surprised at how fast she ran. By the time he reached the front doors, she was leaning in the doorway looking very composed, while Harry was gasping for breath.  
  
"Where've you been?" she said playfully.  
  
Harry smiled and said, "Eating your dust. You're too fast!"  
  
"Well, you might want to eat something better than dust. I'm hungry, let's eat lunch."  
  
They sat with Ron and Hermione, talking enthusiastically about the try-outs.  
  
"Hermione, you were really good! Don't tell him, but I'm going to have to cut Colin...he's just no good!"  
  
"So, Potter, you're thinking that your team will earn you more glory this year? Well think again. My team is going to win that cup."  
  
Harry turned and saw Draco Malfoy smirking at him.  
  
"Y-your team?" 


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: There's No Reason to Hide...  
  
Harry couldn't believe it. Malfoy was captain of the Slytherin team...it just didn't make sense. He was only on the team in the first place because his father had bought all of those fancy brooms for them. His father was disgraced, though, so he couldn't have bribed his way into the position of captain.  
  
"That's right, Potter. My team."  
  
"Oh, well in that case, I'm not worried," said Naomi. She turned to Hermione and said, "Come on, let's get a start on that homework." Naomi stood up and started to leave, Hermione following her. Malfoy scowled and pointed his wand at her, but he made sure it was barely noticeable. "Stupefy," he hissed. Harry jumped up and was about to shout a warning to Naomi, but she didn't need it. She hardly even turned around, just raised her wand and cried,   
  
"Protego!"  
  
The spell was absorbed in the Shield Charm, and Naomi had hardly even blinked. Now she turned and glared at Malfoy, then tossed her hair behind her and stormed out of the Hall. He stared after her like an angry Hippogriff, then spun around and seated himself back at the table. Harry grinned as Professor McGonagall stomped over to him and began telling him off for that cowardly attack. She gave him two week's detention for it.  
  
Harry and Ron stood up to go back to the common room, but Harry suddenly remembered something.  
  
"You go ahead," he muttered. "I've got to do something..."  
  
Ron watched him curiously, but left the Hall as Harry had told him to. Harry waited until the Hall was empty, then approached Dumbledore as he stood up from the table.  
  
"Er-Professor? I need to talk to you..."  
  
"Of course, Harry," said Dumbledore quickly. "Shall we go up to my office?"  
  
"Yeah, okay..." said Harry. He followed him through the school, thinking all the while how he should say it. He had to tell Dumbledore about his dreams, and about how the first one had come almost completely true.  
  
They reached the stone gargoyle that marked the entrance to Dumbledore's office, and Dumbledore said clearly, "Pepper Imps."  
  
The gargoyle sprang to life and moved aside to reveal the moving spiral staircase. They stepped onto the staircase and moved upwards until they reached the door to Dumbledore's office. They entered, Dumbledore sat at his desk, and then he motioned for Harry to sit opposite him.  
  
"Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?"  
  
"Well, I've been having these dreams, and..."  
  
When Harry was finished telling about his dreams and the events of Thursday night, Dumbledore looked like he was angry and concerned.  
  
"So, in esscence, this dream has come true?"  
  
"Sort of. Not all of it, though."  
  
"Yes. Well, I must say I am appalled at Mr. Malfoy's behavior. Perhaps he was acting on his father's orders. But we do not have enough evidence of this, so we cannot have him expelled. I'm sorry," he added as Harry began to protest. "But I can do nothing on the matter. You must understand."  
  
Harry sighed, feeling disappointed. "Yes, Professor."  
  
"It is up to Professor Snape to hand out Malfoy's punishment. I shall ensure that it is sufficient enough to pay for the crime, do not worry."  
  
Feeling a little better at this, Harry thanked Dumbledore for his time and stood to leave.  
  
"Harry," said Dumbledore as Harry reached for the doorknob, "Please tell me if anything such as this happens again, or anything else related to such dreams."  
  
Harry nodded and left the office. He was really hoping that Malfoy would be kicked off the team, but he doubted that would ever happen.  
  
He headed to Gryffindor Tower, where he found Naomi sitting alone in the common room. It seemed everyone else had gone outside. She looked up as he entered.  
  
"Hi," she said. Harry sat next to her.  
  
"Hey. Why aren't you outside?"  
  
She shrugged. "It's too loud out there. I'd usually like to be outside, but we can't go into the forest so there's no way to have some peace out there."  
  
Harry nodded, but then asked, "Do you want me to leave you alone?"  
  
Naomi laughed. "No, I didn't mean that. You can stay. I want you to stay."  
  
They sat and talked for a very long time. All the while Harry was trying to get up the courage to ask her the one question that he had been thinking about ever since Tuesday night when she had dashed off to detention. When they reached a silence, he took a chance.  
  
"Do you...have any parents?" He couldn't believe his stupid big fat mouth. Why did he have to say it? But now there was no way to take it back.  
  
Naomi was quiet for a while before finally answering, "I don't know."  
  
Harry didn't know what on earth he was supposed to say. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked such a stupid question..."  
  
"No, it's all right. It's natural for someone to be curious." she sighed. "Well, I expect you want me to tell you everything?"  
  
"Well...sort of-No, wait! I didn't say that! You don't have to tell me anything-"  
  
"Shut up, Harry. I'll tell you if you want me to, just not...all of it. Well, you know I can see the Threstals. I saw my mother murdered by Death Eaters. My father..." She looked away from him, down at the carpet, and was silent.  
  
"You don't have to talk about it, I'm not making you," Harry said quickly. Now look what you did, you idiot. Why can't you control your stupid mouth? He thought furiously. He really didn't want to upset Naomi.  
  
He was saved from the awkwardness of that moment when Ron and Hermione came inside to join them. Harry didn't pay much attention to the conversation. He was thinking about the little bit of her past that Naomi had just revealed to him. She hates Malfoy and his father...and her mother was murdered by Death Eaters...  
  
××××××  
  
When the date of the first Hogsmeade weekend arrived, Harry was intensely relieved at the thought that he would be spending the day in the village with his friends. Naomi had asked McGonagall if she could go, but it was Dumbledore who granted her permission.  
  
As they walked out of the gates together, talking about Quidditch. Practices had been going very well, and Harry was extremely pleased with his team. He had only cut Colin, and Hermione still seemed not able to believe that she made the team. Ron and Hermione fell behind a little bit after a while, and Harry and Naomi walked along together. Harry felt a surge of rage when he heard Malfoy's taunt from behind, "Aw, look, the Weasel King and the Muggle!" It was Naomi who spun around and said,  
  
"Hermione's a witch, and you know it!"  
  
"Yeah, and you're a freak and you know it, right?"  
  
"You're just jealous because I'm a real freak and you have to wear that hideous mask!"**  
  
She spun around and continued towards the village, leaving a dumbstruck Malfoy behind.  
  
Ron and Hermione caught up with them, laughing very hard.  
  
"That was great!" cried Ron. They all continued on, still laughing at the scene that had just occurred.  
  
The trip to the village was a lot of fun. Hermione, Ron, and Harry showed Naomi all of the sights, and she even tried Butterbeer for the first time.  
  
While they were shopping at Honeydukes, the sweet shop, Cho approached Harry again.  
  
"Harry," she whispered, "I'm sorry. I had no idea your godfather died."  
  
"It's okay," he said shortly, wishing Cho would just leave him alone.  
  
"Well...bye, then" and she left. Harry was quite surprised that she hadn't stayed longer, and he rather regretted being so short with her when all she wanted to do was tell him she was sorry about Sirius. But he was soon distracted from this thought when Naomi informed them that they didn't have chocolate where she came from.  
  
"WHAT?" said Ron loudly. No one in the packed store paid him any attention, though. "No chocolate? That's craziness!"  
  
"Well, we do use chocolate in baking and stuff at the castle, but we haven't got it in blocks like this..."  
  
By the time they all came back to the school, they were very tired and a bit cold, but happy nonetheless. They dropped off their stuff that they had bought in their dorms, but didn't feel like eating dinner, for they were still full of sweets. They thought they might as well go down there to get some pumpkin juice or something, so they headed off anyway.  
  
On the way down, Harry informed them that they had their first Quidditch match the following Saturday. Naomi was very excited about this. "Oh, good!" she said happily. "Who's it against?"  
  
"Ravenclaw."  
  
"Are they any good this year?"  
  
"I think we'll have some competition, but nobody's about to beat my team!"  
  
××××××  
  
They ended up winning their game on Saturday. Hermione, Ginny, and Naomi were the best Chaser team Harry had seen since the World Cup two years ago, and Dean and Seamus were almost as good as Fred and George were. Ron made some spectacular saves, he was much better than last year, the Chasers put through some spectacular goals, and Harry caught the Snitch about 45 minutes into the game. It was a tough match for Harry, however, because Luna Lovegood was a very good Seeker for the Ravenclaw team.  
  
Harry felt wonderful as he stood in the changing room, listening to the rumble of cheers from the Gryffindors outside. The stadium was emptying, and Harry just wanted to wait until everyone was gone. After the voiced died away, he started out. He stopped, though, when he heard a dry sob. He looked around and saw Naomi sitting in the corner, her face buried in her hands.  
  
Harry walked slowly up to her, and noticed a letter sitting beside her on the bench.  
  
"What's wrong? We just won!" Harry said, sitting next to her. She didn't say anything, just grabbed the letter and indicated that it was what she was upset about. Harry took it from her and found that it was in the same strange language as before.  
  
"Er...are you going to tell me what this says?"  
  
"M-m-my grandfather is sick, and he's g-g-going to die..." She turned her tearstained face to him, and he felt terribly sorry for her.  
  
"Oh, Naomi...I don't know what to say-"  
  
"Don't worry," she said, wiping the tears from her face. "Some things just don't need to be said."  
  
They walked up to the castle together, silent tears still streaming down Naomi's face. When they reached the entrance hall, Harry turned to her and gently wiped them away with his sleeve.  
  
"It's okay. He'll be in a better place. Dumbledore once asked me: Do you think the ones we love ever leave us, even after death?"  
  
"I know...but that doesn't mean I can't be sad about it. And anyway, there's more to it than that..."  
  
They had reached an empty corridor. Everyone else was at dinner.  
  
"There's more?" asked Harry.  
  
She nodded and pulled him into an empty classroom.  
  
"Harry, when he dies, I have to take over my people."  
  
"You have to...what? Naomi, you're not telling me something. We're friends. There's no reason to hide it...unless it's really personal or something"  
  
"I'm-"  
  
Just then Peeves the Poltergeist burst into the room. He cackled at the sight of them and swooped towards Naomi. He grabbed her bag and began floating around the room with it, throwing its contents in every direction, chanting, "Potty's got a girlfriend, Potty's got a girlfriend!"  
  
"Give it back, Peeves!" she shouted, jumping up and reaching for the bag. As her right hand shot up to grab it, her sleeve slid down, and Harry froze. Naomi grabbed the bag and began shouting furiously at Peeves, but Harry wasn't listening. He grabbed her right arm and pushed her sleeve up.  
  
On her forearm, there was what was clearly a picture of a skull, with a snake protruding from the mouth like a tongue. 


	14. chapter 14

Chapter 14: Dreams Come True  
  
Naomi stared wide-eyed at Harry, looking petrified. She tried to pull away, but Harry didn't let go. She turned her head aside so she wouldn't have to look him in the eye.  
  
"Let me go--please," she whispered.  
  
Without really thinking, Harry threw her away from him. She regained her balance and stared at him, looking hurt that he wouldn't let her explain.  
  
"Leave." Harry said acidly. "Just stay out of my life."  
  
She looked fearfully at him for a moment before turning and running out of the classroom, her face in her hands.  
  
Harry stood there, fuming. He couldn't believe he had trusted her. Just then Ron and Hermione burst through the door.  
  
"Harry, what happened? Naomi just ran past, crying her eyes out over something-she wouldn't stop when we tried to talk to her," said Ron.  
  
Hermione looked at Harry's expression then said nervously, "What happened? What did you do to her?"  
  
"What did I do to her? Is that what you want to know?" said Harry furiously. "Hermione, she has the Dark Mark on her arm, and we trusted her this whole time!"  
  
Hermione looked horror-struck. "Harry, what did you do to her?"  
  
"I told her to leave and stay out of my life! Do you have a problem with that?" said Harry fiercely.  
  
"Harry! How could you? You didn't even let her explain, did you?"  
  
"What's there to explain? She had the Dark Mark on her arm, Hermione!"  
  
Ron hadn't said anything since he came into the room. He was very pale, and was just staring at Harry and Hermione as each one spoke.  
  
"Harry, I can't believe you! You have no idea what her life is like-"  
  
"So her mother is dead! So what? She's still got a brother, sister, grandfather-"  
  
"Her grandfather is dying, Harry! You're being-"  
  
"I DON'T CARE IF HE'S DYING! SHE STILL KNEW HIM, DIDN'T SHE? SHE STILL HAD A BROTHER AND SISTER-"  
  
"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME?"  
  
Harry was still in a towering rage, but Hermione's seemed to be greater than his own.  
  
"FINE! Tell me what you've got to stick up for her! I'm listening!"  
  
"Harry, you think that no one understands you, no one understands what your life is like, never having a proper family. Well, I don't know if you ever realized it, but out of all of us, Naomi understands you best! She even has it worse than you-"  
  
"She HAS a family!"  
  
"I TOLD YOU TO LISTEN TO ME!"  
  
Harry shut his mouth.  
  
"She knew her mother, but her mother died. That makes the pain worse, that she had a relationship with her before the death. Harry, she doesn't know if she's an orphan or not. She knows her mother is dead, she saw her being murdered. She doesn't know if her father's alive or not. He was a sea captain; he sailed off one day and never came back. She doesn't know.  
  
"Her brother and sister were kidnapped a few years ago when a few Death Eaters returned to the island. She had to watch while they were taken away. She couldn't do anything. She doesn't even know if they are alive anymore.  
  
"All her life she's felt helpless, don't you see? She watched her mother's death, and she couldn't do anything about it. Her father disappeared, and she couldn't do anything about it. She watched her brother and sister being kidnapped, and she couldn't do anything about it. Now, her grandfather is dying, and she can't do anything about it.  
  
"She's mostly scared because she will have to take over her people when her grandfather is gone. Her brother would have been the one to do it, but he's gone."  
  
"I don't care how bad her childhood was! She's got the Mark, Hermione!"  
  
"I was just getting to that! Now, when those few Death Eaters came back to the island, she sneaked to their camp to try and see what they were up to. There was all kinds of Dark Magic things all around, and she managed to get almost to the main part of the camp when she saw one of the Death Eaters coming. She started to run, but tripped and fell over a crate of Dark weapons. Her arm was pressed against a sword that had the Dark Mark engraved into the hilt, and it burned the shape of it into her arm. She's not a Death Eater and she never will be. She hates the Dark Side more than anything. Especially the Malfoys, as they were the ones who took her brother and sister, and they also were the ones who murdered her mother."  
  
Harry was silent. He couldn't believe himself. He couldn't believe that he actually thought she would be a Death Eater. He sank down onto one of the desks.  
  
"I should have trusted her. I should have known she wouldn't be one of them..."  
  
"Harry," whispered Hermione, "You should also know that...she loved you."  
  
×××××××  
  
Naomi didn't pause to talk to Ron and Hermione. She didn't care if they worried about her. No one wanted her, anyway.  
  
She ran through the entrance hall and out onto the darkening grounds. She turned and fled into the Forbidden Forest, thinking, I don't care if we're not allowed in there. I don't care if it's dangerous.  
  
She ran on and on, dodging trees, bushes, and rocks that were in her way. Soon she was so deep in the forest she could hardly see. Gasping for breath, she tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground, sobbing into the soft carpet of moss.  
  
×××××××  
  
"...What?" Harry was sure he had heard Hermione wrong.  
  
"Since the first time she saw you. It wasn't just a stupid crush, she literally loved you."  
  
"And I just did that to her..." Harry stopped his pacing and put both hands against the wall, resting his head on the cool stone. "That's what my dream meant. Malfoy hurt her first, and I saved her, then I just turned around and hurt her just as badly."  
  
Hermione looked like she didn't know what to say. Finally she settled on, "Well, I guess we'd better go find her...any ideas?"  
  
"Maybe at Hagrid's?" suggested Ron.  
  
"I don't know...I think she left the school grounds...THE MAP!" Harry shouted excitedly.  
  
"What?" said Ron and Hermione together, looking up at him.  
  
"We can see if she's still in the Hogwarts boundaries by using the Marauder's Map!"  
  
He dashed up to the dormitory and got the map, then sprinted back to the empty classroom. Gasping for breath, he tapped it with his wand and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."  
  
The map of Hogwarts appeared on the parchment, and Harry examined it closely. Most of the dots were in the Great Hall, but some of them were elsewhere. He examined each one that wasn't in the Hall and didn't see Naomi's name anywhere on it. He moaned.  
  
×××××××  
  
Naomi heard voices, but did not open her eyes until she felt strong arms scooping her up and sitting her against a tree. She looked around and choked back a scream.  
  
Centaurs were staring at her, five of them. They were all watching her with interest, and suddenly the one who had picked her up cried out, "The stars told us of this! It is the girl!"  
  
She looked around and saw that the one who had spoken was wild looking with black hair and a black body. "E-excuse me?" Naomi said weakly.  
  
"We read from the stars ages ago that a raven-girl would come to us. And here you are!" The one that had spoken this time had red hair and a matching beard, with a chestnut body and red tail.  
  
"Wait!" another centaur had come forward. This one had long, light-brown hair that was tied back. He looked like he was a bit younger than the chestnut-bodied one, but he seemed to be one of the strongest of them. He had a light brown body and had a quiver of arrows slung over his back, like the rest of them. He gripped his bow very tightly as he said to Naomi, "Where do you come from? Did you come from the school?"  
  
"Y-y-yes," she whispered, terrified of what they might do to her if she said it.  
  
Several of the centaurs reared up angrily. The brown haired centaur said loudly, "Then you have profited from the traitor Firenze's teachings!"  
  
"Who? I don't know anyone named Firenze..."  
  
"Do not lie to me!"  
  
"I swear! I'm not lying, I-"  
  
"What year are you in at the school?" said a centaur with a soft, gentle voice. Naomi turned and saw that this one had darker brown hair that was streaked with gray and a cream-colored body. He was looking at her with curiosity and kindness rather than anger, and she felt calmed by it.  
  
"Sixth."  
  
"Then last year you were taught by Firenze!" burst out the centaur with light-brown hair.  
  
"No I wasn't, I don't know anyone named Firenze. Kill me if you think I'm lying."  
  
The centaur with the kind eyes slowly walked up to her and looked into her eyes. "She is telling the truth. The eyes are the windows to the soul. I see that she is truthful-I see it in her soul."  
  
All of the centaurs calmed at this, and the young one with light-brown hair said, "If you say so, father. We believe you."  
  
The kind centaur nodded. "You must learn to control your anger, my son." then he turned to Naomi. "My name is Bentain. I am sorry for my son's behavior, but he had yet to learn the lesson of trust."  
  
Bentain's son nodded. "I apologize. My name is Kenthar, by the way. This is Ronan-" he indicated the red-haired centaur "-this is Bane-" he gestured toward the one with black hair and body "and this is Argorath." he pointed to the last centaur who hadn't said a word yet. He was very tall, had shoulder-length black hair, and had very a very dark brown body. He just looked down at Naomi and said nothing. His eyes were dark blue and he had a rather sharp-looking nose.  
  
"Come," said Ronan. "You must see our village."  
  
×××××××  
  
Harry had his face in his hands, thinking wildly of what he was supposed to do now. "That's it," he said slowly. Then, "THAT'S IT! Why didn't I think of it before?" He spun around and left the room, a confused-looking Ron and Hermione following him. Harry sprinted through the corridors, headed for Dumbledore's office.  
  
Just as he rounded a corner, he crashed into someone.  
  
"ARGH!" Both Harry and the person he ran into shouted in pain. Then the person spoke.  
  
"Oh, Harry! It's you! I was hoping to find you." It was Luna Lovegood. She reached down to help Harry to his feet. "Where were you running to in such a hurry?"  
  
"Dumbledore's office. Naomi ran away and I have no idea where she's gone."  
  
Luna looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "Oh! I saw someone running across the grounds, toward the Forbidden Forest...do you think it was her?"  
  
Harry's eyes widened. He grabbed Luna by the arm and said, "Come with me!" He dragged as fast as he could up to Dumbledore's office. Luna regained her balance as Harry shouted, "Pepper Imps, Pepper Imps!"  
  
The gargoyle moved aside and Harry ran up the stairs with Luna. He heard Ron and Hermione behind him. When they reached the top, Harry burst through the door and found Dumbledore sitting at his desk, reading a letter with a frown on his face. He started and looked up as Harry entered. Then, noticing the urgency with which Harry had entered, he stood up and said, "What has happened?"  
  
Still panting, Harry explained everything that had happened since the Quidditch match. Luna watched him with a curious expression. She hadn't heard the full story yet.  
  
When Harry had finished, Dumbledore turned to Luna. "Do you know where Naomi has gone?"  
  
"I saw someone running across the grounds towards the forest, but I don't know if it was her."  
  
Dumbledore looked extremely worried. "We must hurry. If she is in the forest I fear the worst. I do not believe there is a creature in there that would stop to help a human."  
  
Hermione let out a small sob and leaned into Ron's arms. He normally would have looked quite awkward at this, but under the circumstances he held her close and whispered that it would be all right.  
  
Harry swallowed and asked, "Will she be okay?"  
  
"I do not know, Harry," said Dumbledore gravely. "However, I believe our best chance is to turn to the centaurs for help."  
  
"But they don't like humans, they'll never agree to-"  
  
"We must try." 


	15. chapter 15

Chapter 15: Alone  
  
Naomi looked around completely shocked. She was in the middle of what was undoubtedly a settlement of centaurs. There was lots of buildings around-but they weren't really buildings, more like shelters with three walls and a roof. Most of them had several three-walled rooms built into them.  
  
Bentain spoke gently to her. "Come, you need food and rest."  
  
Naomi did not protest. She followed Bentain through the dwellings, Kenthar behind her, until they reached one on the edge of the village. It was slightly bigger than the rest, and looked a bit more fancy, too. Bentain walked up to the front room, which was open to the front. He called into the house, "Ferena! Come here, please!"  
  
A woman centaur stepped out of the house. She was wearing a white shirt-type garment that set off her tan. She had long brown hair and a light-brown body like Kenthar's.  
  
"What is it, Bentain?" she asked mildly. Then she spotted Naomi.  
  
"Ferena, this girl will be staying with us for a while. Please make sure she gets rest and food."  
  
"Of course." she turned to Kenthar. "How are you, son?"  
  
So this was obviously Kenthar's mother and Bentain's wife.  
  
"I'm fine, mother," said Kenthar quickly. "But father and I need to get to the meeting-"  
  
"Oh, yes, of course."  
  
Kenthar and Bentain hurriedly said goodbye and trotted off to the center of the village. Naomi watched them until they were out of sight. She felt a bit awkward as she was the only human there. Ferena spoke gently.  
  
"Come, child. You need to lay down for a bit. What is your name?"  
  
"Naomi, ma'am."  
  
"Just Ferena, dear. Come on, now." Ferena led Naomi into one of the back rooms in the house, where there was a small water basin, a table, and a bed. It looked quite comfortable. Naomi was a bit surprised that a human's bed would be in a centaur's village, but decided she would just ask later.  
  
Naomi sat down on the mattress of the bed, which was very soft. Ferena left for a moment and came back with some food. Naomi ate slowly, then curled up under the covers and fell asleep.  
  
×××××××  
  
She woke before dawn the next morning. No one else seemed to be stirring in the village. Naomi lay there for a while, unsure of what to do, when an owl landed in the windowsill. She jumped up and took the letter from the large gray and white owl, which immediately took flight again.  
  
She opened the letter with trembling hands, afraid of what might be inside. It was written in her people's language, and said:  
  
Naomi-  
  
I'm afraid your grandfather has gotten worse. He doesn't have much longer now. He keeps begging for someone to bring you to him, he really wants to see you one last time. If you can, come home. We all miss you.  
  
-Jessie  
  
Naomi swallowed. She had been terrified that the letter would say he had died. She would have never forgiven herself if she hadn't seen him one last time...hadn't said goodbye...  
  
Tears were running down her face now. Why did I have to come to Hogwarts? No one wants me here, I don't belong here... Hardly anything else had been on her mind lately. As she tried to stop crying, a thought struck her. Leave.  
  
She could hardly bear to stay away from home much longer. She wanted to see her friends again. Jessica was her best friend from the castle, and Melody was her best friend from her village. Hermione was the only real friend Naomi had at Hogwarts, but Hermione still had Ron and Harry like she always did.  
  
The thought of Harry caused Naomi to stand up and start towards the door. She would just keep running until she came out on the other side of the forest. Maybe then she could find her way home.  
  
She slipped out of the house and started in the direction she knew she hadn't come into the village from. She slipped through the buildings, trying hard not to wake anyone. When she finally came into the forest again, she felt loneliness take over her in an instant. With this loneliness came fear, fear that she was leaving behind safety and running into the unknown.  
  
But all she could do was run. She turned and sprinted away from the centaur village, away from the school. She ran and ran, the trees nothing but dark blurs. The forest was not getting any lighter as the rising of the sun approached. Finally, unable to carry on, Naomi slumped onto a large rock. It was very cool and felt wonderful. Soon she had drifted off to sleep again.  
  
××××××××  
  
Then next day Dumbledore told Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Luna to come with him. Harry didn't think Dumbledore's plan was very full proof, but he couldn't do anything about it.  
  
They were to go into the forest and find the centaurs. Dumbledore would try to persuade them to help look for Naomi, and hope they would agree. First, however, Dumbledore had scribbled a note and sent Luna to the owlry to send it. No one knew what it was about.  
  
Ron, Hermione, and Harry set off after Dumbledore. As soon as they reached the entrance hall, Luna appeared, panting. Together they hurried off to the forest.  
  
Harry had been in the forest on many occasions before, but he hadn't ever been so deep into it. He didn't know how big the forest was, but he thought they must be near the heart of it. They had been walking for hours when Dumbledore finally told them to stop.  
  
"The centaur's village is just ahead," he quietly told them. "We do not want to alarm them. I sent an owl ahead, so I hope they will not attack."  
  
Harry gulped. Attack?  
  
They proceeded forward and just as they passed a clump of bushes they saw many three-sided houses that seemed to be home to centaurs. There was many centaurs milling about the village, but they seemed to be headed in one general direction-the center of the village.  
  
Dumbledore led them through the stone houses until they came to what seemed to be the village square-or something similar. There was a few centaurs standing on a raised platform while the others gathered around them. The ones on the platform were looking very grave. Three of them Harry had never seen. One had a light-brown body and matching hair that was long and tied back. Another had darker brown hair that way graying and a cream-colored body. Another Harry recognized as Bane, with wild black hair and a black body. The fourth one was definitely Ronan, who had orange hair with a matching tail and beard, and a chestnut body. The fifth one Harry had never seen before. He had a dark brown body, shoulder-length black hair, and sharp blue eyes.  
  
Just then another centaur walked to the platform. This one was the chief, Magorian, Harry remembered him from last year.  
  
Dumbledore walked up to Magorian and said carefully, "I am sorry to bother you. I trust you got the letter I sent earlier?"  
  
"Yes," said Magorian, nodding. "And I think you should know that we have found the girl."  
  
Harry, Ron, and Hermione let out relieved sighs.  
  
"But we do not have her any longer."  
  
Harry froze. She was gone. How could this have happened?  
  
"You do not have her? I'm afraid I don't fully understand," said Dumbledore.  
  
"I think it would be best for Bentain to tell of this."  
  
The centaur with brown-and-gray hair and a cream-colored body spoke now.  
  
"We read in the stars long ago that a raven girl would come to us. She would bring good fortune to the tribe. While the five of us-" here he indicated Bane, Ronan, and the two other centaurs. "-Were out, we found a girl laying on the ground. It seemed that she had collapsed there. Bane picked her up and she woke. We all saw that she was surely the raven girl we read of in the stars. My son and I took her back to our house where Ferena took care of her. This happened yesterday."  
  
The only centaur that Harry didn't know the name of yet, Bentain's son, now spoke. "This morning I woke and found that she was no longer in her bed. Mother looked around and saw footprints leading out of the village. Bane was furious. He thought we should go find her. But Father said we should not oppose the raven girl. If we did, surely the good luck she brought would be reversed."  
  
Magorian nodded. "Thank you, Kenthar. So you see, Dumbledore, we do not know where she could have gone."  
  
Naomi started as she heard footsteps approaching. She sat up and looked frantically around. She thought she saw the hem of someone's robes flick around a tree, but she wasn't sure. Just then she heard voices.  
  
"...I'll never forgive myself for this. How could I have been so stupid?"  
  
That was definitely Harry's voice. Naomi didn't want to be found. She panicked and ran away from the voices, hurtling through the forest, ignoring the excited shouts from the people behind her. There was a low V-shape in a tree ahead, and she desperately jumped through it...  
  
×××××××××  
  
Ron and Hermione looked just as confused as Harry was as they hurried through the forest, following the footprints left by Naomi. Luna, however, looked just as dreamy as she always was, looking around the forest with mild interest.  
  
"Professor, what was that letter you found in the room she stayed in?" Harry asked uncertainly.  
  
"It was from one of her closest friends from her home. It said that her grandfather was getting worse. I fear she will try to get home now."  
  
"...I'll never forgive myself for this. How could I have been so stupid?"  
  
Hermione had just opened her mouth to tell Harry that he shouldn't be so hard on himself when they saw movement up ahead. Harry thought he saw long, black hair whip out of sight.  
  
"I think it's her!"  
  
They all ran forward, but she was gone. There was a large rock under a tree, and the footprints led right up to it. Then the freshest ones they had seen yet ran away from it and into a clump of trees. Harry wasted no time in following them.  
  
×××××××××  
  
Naomi came through the other side of the tree and felt her feet hit soft sand. This caught her by surprise and she overbalanced, falling down into the sand.  
  
There's no sand in the forest...I know there can't be...She slowly picked herself up and looked around. She was on a beach with white sand and crystal-clear water. She turned around and saw trees that were definitely not the menacing trees from the Forbidden Forest. These trees were not as dense, and sunlight filtered through to the forest floor. She looked back up and down the beach and realized that she had known this the second she got up from the ground. She knew this beach. She had played here so many times as a little girl...she was home.  
  
She turned to her right and made her way down the stretch of sand, towards the cliffs surrounding the bay. She loved that bay. It always seemed to be separated from the rest of the island, and it was where she went to be alone and think.  
  
She picked up her pace until she was sprinting down the beach, towards the cliff. She turned right again when she reached the end of the beach and made her way through the trees. It was so beautiful with the sunlight filtering through in large patches...  
  
She wound through the forest until she reached a field of crops. She was almost there.  
  
She ran past the field, along the river, until she reached the village. She found her house and ducked inside. She stopped a few paces in and looked around at what she saw.  
  
Many people that she knew where standing around the bed, where her grandfather lay. She stood there for a few moments, taking it in, when a small voice said, "You made it."  
  
××××××××  
  
Harry came to an abrupt halt. The footprints led right up to a tree with a V-shaped space in it. They stopped about a foot from it, so he thought Naomi must have leapt through the tree. He walked around it and didn't find any footprints on the other side. He came back around, bewildered, and found Dumbledore examining the tree, muttering under his breath. Harry moved over to Ron, Hermione, and Luna.  
  
"The footprints just...stop. It doesn't make any sense!" Harry said angrily.  
  
Ron, looking baffled, said, "Maybe she's up in the tree?"  
  
Luna snorted with laughter. "Yeah, right, Ron, like she's going to hide in a tree if she thinks someone's chasing her."  
  
Hermione was staring, wide-eyed, at Dumbledore. She seemed to understand what he was doing more than the rest of them did. "Professor," she whispered. "Do you think it's-"  
  
"I believe it is the most logical explanation, Miss Granger."  
  
"What? What is it?" said Ron.  
  
"A magical portal."  
  
"...A what?"  
  
"A magical portal, Ron. They rarely work more than a few times...they will take whoever goes through them to wherever it is they want to go to. No one really knows how they form." Hermione explained.  
  
Ron and Harry gaped at her. "So..." Harry began. "You think she went through here and appeared...back in her homeland?"  
  
"It appears so. Come, we must not waste any more time." said Dumbledore.  
  
Dumbledore climbed through the portal and disappeared. Harry followed, and Ron, Hermione, and Luna came behind him.  
  
They came out on a beach with white sand and clear blue water. It was beautiful. But Harry didn't have much time to appreciate nature at the moment. He sprinted after Dumbledore, who was already halfway down the beach.  
  
They ran through the forest until they finally came to a village that was made up of the teepees Harry had seen in his Geography books while he went to Muggle school. Dumbledore stopped outside of one of the largest ones and motioned for Harry to enter. He did, but stood just inside the entrance so that no one would notice him. Dumbledore followed, but the others stayed outside.  
  
×××××××××  
  
Naomi turned and saw Jessica looking at her. Naomi nodded, tears in her eyes, and walked over to her grandfather. Everyone stepped out of the way for Naomi. She knelt by the bed and took her grandfather's hand. His eyes opened and he beamed at the sight of her.  
  
"You came," he whispered.  
  
"I had to," said Naomi softly, taking his hand in both of hers.  
  
He smiled and said, "You look...exactly like your mother."  
  
A tear ran down Naomi's cheek as she looked at him. He spoke again in the soft whisper he could manage.  
  
"I want you to always remember me when you feel the wind blow. Remember your mother and father, and brother and sister. We are always with you..."  
  
Naomi nodded and was unable to sustain a sob. She looked into his eyes.  
  
"I...love...you...my granddaughter..." and his eyes closed.  
  
"No," gasped Naomi. She laid her head on his chest, crying uncontrollably, until one of the men lifted her gently off. A few more men carried off the body of her grandfather, and she sat there on the edge of the bed, watching them out of hopeless, dead eyes.  
  
Once they were gone she stood up and ran from the house, and she didn't seem to have even noticed Harry or Dumbledore. Harry and Dumbledore looked at each other, then followed her out of the tent. Ron, Hermione, and Luna were outside. It seemed that they had seen everyone that left the house, so they knew about what had happened. Harry sighed.  
  
"I'll try to find her."  
  
Dumbledore nodded and told Ron, Hermione, and Luna to come with him to talk to one of the village elders.  
  
Harry went out in the general direction that Naomi had gone. He wandered through the trees, eventually beginning to think he'd never find her, when he came out of the trees. and right in the middle was a rock jutting out over the edge, like a peninsula. Naomi was standing on the edge of it, looking out into the ocean. Harry stayed back in the shadows, not wanting to be seen just yet, as he didn't know what he should say to her. Harry heard Naomi whisper to the wind, "...I've never felt so alone..."  
  
A voice called up from the bottom of the cliff.  
  
"Naomi? Come down here, I want to talk to you!" It was the voice of the girl who had spoken to Naomi in her house.  
  
Naomi looked down over the edge of the cliff, tears still running down her face, and shook her head. She backed up. Harry shrunk back into the shadows, but Naomi wasn't coming his way. She got a running start, then threw herself over the edge of the cliff.  
  
Harry cried out and ran to the edge of the cliff, he looked desperately over and saw that she had gone into a graceful dive. Harry sighed with relief. He hadn't realized that the cliffs made a bay, so she was just diving into the water. Her friend was on the shore, waiting for her to get to the bottom.  
  
Naomi broke the surface, hardly making a splash at all. Harry watched as she came back up and swam to the shore. He turned and hurried off back into the trees, and began to wind his way downward. He finally came out in the beach, but saw that Naomi and her friend were almost halfway down already. He set off after them, but he didn't want to be seen yet, so he kept a good distance between them.  
  
They rounded a bend and disappeared from sight. Harry sped up to catch them, but as soon as he rounded the bend he found that they had stopped, only a few feet away from him.  
  
He slipped quickly into the trees and listened quietly.   
  
"Well, I can't force you to come, of course. I just thought you'd like to see everyone up there again..."  
  
"I do want to see them, Jess...I just don't want to leave right now. Thanks, though."  
  
Jess nodded. "I understand. When are you going back to Hogwarts?"  
  
Naomi grabbed one of her arms in an embarrassed sort of way and looked down at her feet. "Never."  
  
Jess blinked. "Why? Did something happen?"  
  
"Lots of things happened. I'll tell you later, Jessica. You have to get back to the castle now. Tell Dawn I said hello."  
  
Jessica nodded again and turned to leave. Naomi watched her until she was out of sight, then turned and looked out to the ocean. She sighed.  
  
"I should never have left here. No good came out of it..."  
  
She turned and headed to the trees. Luckily, she walked just beside Harry and didn't see him.  
  
He looked after her and sighed. Harry realized that, as Hermione had said, Naomi had it worse than Harry ever had. She understood him, and he didn't have the brains to realize that she'd never be a Death Eater. He got up and followed her.  
  
He didn't actually see Naomi until he came to a small hill that rose up out of the ground. He saw a person standing on top of it, and knew at once that it was Naomi. He took a deep breath and began climbing towards her. He was hardly even to the hill when Naomi spotted him. She ran down the slope, her hair flowing out behind her. She stopped just in front of him, looked him in the face, then threw her arms around his neck. Harry was quite taken aback. Before he could react, however, Naomi had pulled away and she was now gazing into his eyes, tears shining on her face.  
  
"Naomi, I-" Harry began.  
  
"Shhh..." she whispered, pressing a finger to his lips. "You don't have to say anything."  
  
"Yes, I do. I was being really stupid and I should have-"  
  
"It doesn't matter. I understand."  
  
At these last words Harry felt a wave of emotion wash over him. She understands. She's the only person I know who fully understands me. He felt a jolt in his stomach as he realized that the emotion coming over him was...love. Harry was reminded of something Hermione had said to him. 'It wasn't just a stupid crush. She literally loved you.'  
  
Harry took Naomi in his arms and held her close. She had forgiven him. He hadn't expected her to forgive him that quickly. Harry took her by the shoulders and held her in front of him, gazing into her dark eyes. Naomi slowly put her hands around his neck, and they drew close. She closed her eyes, and Harry felt like he was going to burst. They were seconds from the kiss when Ron's voice suddenly floated over to them. "Harry? You there?"  
  
Harry and Naomi broke apart, Harry feeling quite annoyed. Naomi, however, looked like she was trying her hardest not to laugh.  
  
Ron came into view with Hermione and Luna, and Naomi bit her lip hard to keep from laughing.  
  
"There you are, Harry!" cried Hermione. Then, "Naomi! He found you, then?"  
  
"Um..." said Naomi with a sideways glance at Harry. "No, Hermione, he didn't. I'm just standing here and I don't know where on earth he is."  
  
Hermione laughed, and this finally set off Naomi. She let out the fits of giggles that had been fighting to get out of her, and she could hardly stand. Harry couldn't help laughing now, and soon Ron had joined in. It felt so good, laughing at practically nothing. These are real friends. Harry thought, looking around at his dearest friends in the world. Finally they stopped and decided to find Dumbledore.  
  
They made their way back to the village, Naomi now looking very subdued. A tall, strong-looking young man who looked about 20 years old approached them.  
  
"Princess Naomi, I think we may have found them!"  
  
Harry froze. Princess? He thought, gaping at Naomi. But then, Well what did you think, you moron? She said she'd have to take over after her grandfather died, so that was self-explanatory...  
  
Naomi turned urgently to the man. "You did? Where?"  
  
"Far from here, I'm afraid. Princess Dawn said a few soldiers are going to try and get them."  
  
"That's great! Can I go with them?"  
  
"No. Princess Dawn said you are to stay here or at the castle."  
  
Naomi sighed. "Okay. Well, thank you very much for the news."  
  
The young man bowed and walked away. Ron turned to her, looking dumbstruck.  
  
"Princess? You're a princess?"  
  
"Just of the tribe here," she said, waving her hand around the village. "And the smaller islands around the mainland. Princess Dawn is the princess of the whole kingdom. Not me."  
  
Ron closed his mouth, but continued staring at her. Hermione looked like she had known all along.  
  
"Why didn't you tell us before?" demanded Harry.  
  
"Well, like I said before, I just wasn't ready to tell everything. And besides, I was hoping to have nobody at the school know because I was afraid they would treat me differently."  
  
Harry found that he could completely understand this. After all, he was famous, and people usually treated him differently for it. He caught Naomi's eye and realized that Hermione had been right. 'Out of all of us, Naomi understands you best.' Harry knew that he understood Naomi and Naomi understood him. It was a great feeling, to have a friend who knew what your life was like.  
  
"We should find Dumbledore. I want to go up to the castle," said Naomi, not taking her eyes off of Harry.  
  
"I see you are safe, Naomi. I am very thankful for your well-being."  
  
Dumbledore had come up behind them without them noticing. He was smiling warmly at Naomi.  
  
"Thank you, Professor." She hung her head. "And...I'm sorry."  
  
"Aw, you shouldn't be apologizing, Naomi. It was my fault." Harry said quickly.  
  
"I believe that there is not any one person we can lay the blame on. It was an accident, and nothing more. Now, you said you want to go to the castle, Naomi?"  
  
"Yes, sir. Can I?"  
  
"Of course. However, I do not want you to go alone."  
  
"I'll go with her, Professor," Harry said quickly.  
  
"Ron and I, as well," Hermione said.  
  
Luna spoke now. "I'll go."  
  
"No, I am sorry, but not all of you can go. You need to get back to the school, remember. I believe, Harry, that you should go with her. I will take the rest of you back."  
  
Ron, Hermione, and Luna groaned and protested. Dumbledore smiled at them all, and said, "If you would really like to go, you may do so. Just be careful and come back as soon as you can."  
  
Everyone brightened up at this, and Naomi looked a bit more cheerful.  
  
"I must return to the school. I would prefer it if at least one of you came back with me, but I will let you decide," Dumbledore continued. Luna sighed.  
  
"I'll go back with you, Professor."  
  
"Oh, Luna, you don't have t-" Naomi began. But Luna held up a hand to stop her.  
  
"It's okay. You guys go ahead."  
  
××××××××  
  
Naomi led them down the river until they reached the sea. It was absolutely beautiful.  
  
She turned and led them along the beach to where a small sailboat was bobbing in the waves. It was just big enough to fit all of them.  
  
They all climbed into the boat, Naomi in the back. The wind wasn't blowing with them, however, so Harry didn't see how they were supposed to go anywhere. Naomi stood up in the back of the boat and spread her arms wide, palms pointing out and her eyes closed. She looked like she was concentrating very hard, and suddenly brought one hand up to point to the sky.  
  
A wind began to blow behind them that filled the sail and caused the boat to move. Harry and Ron gaped at her, and Hermione even looked surprised.  
  
Naomi glanced around casually and asked, "What are you staring at?"  
  
"How did you do that?" cried Harry.  
  
Naomi smiled. "Didn't you hear what grandfather said to me?"  
  
Harry thought back. 'I want you to remember me when you feel the wind blow. Remember your mother and father, and brother and sister. We are always with you.'  
  
He suddenly started. "How did you know I was there? I didn't think you saw us when you left..."  
  
Naomi smiled again and said, "When you said you were looking for me, I figured you had listened into that...especially because Professor Dumbledore was there."  
  
Even though she was smiling, her eyes were filling with tears. Harry quickly changed the subject.  
  
"So...where are we gong, exactly?"  
  
Naomi looked glad Harry had brought up something else, and pointed ahead of them. Harry turned and saw a large island ahead. There was a tall mountain just to the right of the area they were headed to. Naomi explained that this island was the biggest of the group of islands that made up the country. The castle was in the middle of the crescent-shaped mountain range than ran along the North side of the island.  
  
They bumped against the shore and climbed out of the boat. There was a steep path ahead of them, with trees on either side. Naomi led the way up the winding path until they came out in a very large open field, with lots of small, rolling hills. Ahead and to their right Harry could see what looked like the top of a castle. He pointed to it and asked, "Is that where we're going?"  
  
"Yes, but I wish we had horses. It would have been a lot faster..."  
  
They started off in the direction of the castle. After about ten minutes they were in the dip between two hills. Naomi held out a hand to stop them, and hissed, "Shh!"  
  
Harry could hear what sounded like hoof beats. Naomi looked frantically around, then stared at the top of the hill they were about to climb.  
  
A figure riding a horse came galloping into view. The horse came down to the dip where they were, and halted right next to Naomi.  
  
Before Harry could figure out what was going on, the rider had slipped off of the horse and Naomi was squealing, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! How did you know where to find us?" she sounded delighted.  
  
The rider pulled her into a tight hug and swung her around in a circle before putting her down and saying, "Dumbledore said you might be needing some assistance."  
  
Harry was finally able to get a good look at this person. He looked only about four years older than Harry, and was very muscular and tan. He had yellow hair that swept into his face and blue eyes. He was wearing riding pants, a green tunic, and a traveling cloak.  
  
Naomi spoke to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "This is Shadow," she said, still beaming up at the newcomer.  
  
"Hey," Harry said stiffly, feeling a bit angry. Naomi looked sharply at him, apparently because of his lack of enthusiasm, but Harry pretended not to notice.  
  
Shadow held out his hand to shake Harry's. Harry took it, thinking he might as well be polite, and said, "I'm Harry, and this is Ron and Hermione."  
  
Shadow's eyes widened. "Harry Potter?"  
  
Harry nodded.  
  
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Potter!"  
  
Harry felt the color rise in his face, and heard Naomi stifling giggles. "It's just Harry," he muttered.  
  
Shadow shook everyone's hands, then turned to his horse. "I brought a few brooms...Here you go."  
  
He handed everyone a broomstick, and Harry noticed that they were all fairly good models, Nimbus 2000's.   
  
"I'm riding back, but you all can fly." Shadow said, starting to mount the horse.  
  
"I've got an idea," said Naomi quickly. "How about I ride and you fly?"  
  
"No way, Naomi. You're a better flyer than me, anyway."  
  
Naomi sighed in defeat and picked up her broom. She looked at Harry, who was still glaring at Shadow, then said, "Ron and Hermione, you go ahead. Just follow Shadow. Harry and I will catch up."  
  
They looked curious about this, but agreed anyway. They mounted their brooms and flew off, following Shadow on his galloping horse. As soon as they were out of earshot, Naomi turned to Harry.  
  
"What's the matter with you?"  
  
Harry looked at her for a long time, and realized that she looked curious and a bit angry, but not furious. He hesitated before saying, "You know you could have just told me."  
  
"Harry, what-"  
  
"So you like him! I wouldn't have cared if you'd just told me!"  
  
"Harry you're being stupid-"  
  
"You do like him, don't you?"  
  
"Yes, I do, but-"  
  
"Then why do you still care about me?"  
  
"HARRY! You're not listening to me again!"  
  
Harry froze. These words really hit him hard  
  
"Harry, I do like Shadow. I like him as a friend. You need to stop assuming so much. I know it's not your fault, because you didn't know, but maybe next time you should just think about it. I don't like him in that way, because I'm in love with...someone else," She said these last words very softly and looked deep into his eyes for a long time. Harry swallowed.  
  
"Okay...well, I guess we should catch up to them now...and I'm sorry."  
  
Naomi smiled and kissed him gently on the cheek. Harry felt his face get really hot, and felt like kicking himself. Why did he have to go red? It made him look so stupid...But he was very thankful when Naomi paid no attention to it. She mounted her broom and said, "Come on, we can catch up to them!"  
  
Harry laughed and hopped onto his broomstick. They both rose into the air and sped off towards the far-off castle. After a while Harry saw two black specs in the air, and one on the ground. They got closer and saw that it was Ron, Hermione, and Shadow. Soon they were right next to Ron and Hermione.  
  
They both looked shocked that Harry and Naomi had managed to catch up to them. Naomi laughed, the wind whipping her hair back, and Harry felt his spirit soaring. He was feeling better than he had since...he couldn't remember when.  
  
They finally reached the village Harry had seen around the castle, and landed just outside of it. Shadow took all of their brooms and walked off, leading his horse. Naomi led the way into the town.  
  
They walked down a few streets and alleyways, until they came out in what seemed to be the marketplace. Naomi walked through the crowd, not stopping in any of the shops. A whole lot of people greeted her warmly, and it seemed that she was well known there.  
  
They reached the other side of the marketplace, walked through a few more streets with houses on either side, then came out on a dirt road that ran through a gorge in the foothills of the mountain. It curved around a sharp turn ahead of them, but Harry looked up and saw over the top of the ride a beautiful castle made of white stone. Naomi led them around the bend in the road, and there was a large iron gate in an archway made of the same white stone. A guard stood by the gate, watching them carefully. The guard recognized Naomi, it seemed, and called an order to the other side of the gate. It creaked open, and suddenly someone ran through it, crying out happily. 


	16. Chapter 16

The person who ran forward was a girl, and Harry got a good look at her as she got closer. She stopped in front of Naomi and panted, "You came! Jessica said you might not come, I was really hoping you would!"

This girl looked about the same age as Shadow and had thick blonde hair that reached the middle of her back. She had eyes that were a clear, almost see-through sea foam color, which were now sparkling with excitement. She had a heart-shaped face and rosy cheeks, and was very beautiful. She was wearing a dress that had a white skirt and light blue top, but it seemed she didn't care about her clothes too much, for it was obvious she had been running around a lot.

Naomi smiled. "Yeah, I thought I should come back...Oh guys this is Dawn. I mentioned her before."

Harry started. So this is the Princess? She's not really what I expected...Dawn smiled at them all, finally regaining her breath, and said, "Hi."

"This is Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter," said Naomi, gesturing to each one as she said their name.

Dawn beamed and asked Harry, "Harry Potter? Are you really him?"

Harry nodded. Dawn seemed overcome with excitement, bouncing up and down. "Ooh, then you must come in and meet my father, he thinks very highly of you, we all do!"

Again, Harry felt himself go red, but Dawn had already turned and was leading them through the gate that she had come from. Naomi stood next to Harry and looked up at him. "You okay?"

He smiled weakly at her. "Yeah. I just hate being recognized like that."

Naomi giggled. "So humble a gentlemen I have never met, Mr. Potter!"

Harry rolled his eyes, moaned, and began to drag a still giggling Naomi after Dawn.

They walked up the dirt road, which curved in a large semicircle around the massive front lawn of the castle. Harry looked eagerly around him and saw that on his right was the steep rock of the mountain foothills, but to his left was the lawns. There were lots of wild flowers growing randomly in the grass, and it looked quite nice--better than Uncle Vernon's perfectly manicured lawn with nothing but plain green grass in it. The path they were on had been gently sloping uphill the entire time, so that when they reached the top they were looking down onto the lawns. A low stone wall was there to keep anyone from falling down the almost vertical fifteen-foot drop to the bottom.

Dawn turned to the castle, which had a moat around it. Just like the water in the ocean, the moat water was crystal clear. They followed her over the wooden drawbridge, and found themselves in a large courtyard. There was a cobblestone path leading through the gardens, and the white castle walls were on all four sides. Dawn turned to them all and said, "Welcome to our castle!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione gaped around at the magnificent courtyard, but Naomi seemed like she was just happy to see it again. Dawn smiled at their expressions, then said, "Naomi, if you'd take Hermione to her room, I'll see if I can't find someone to take Ron and Harry to theirs."

"I'll do it, Dawn," said someone behind them. Harry started and turned around, to find Shadow standing there. Dawn beamed at him.

"Thanks. That means I can go with Naomi and Hermione. We'll meet back up..." she paused, thinking. "How about in the North courtyard?"

Shadow nodded.

"Right. Well, come on Harry--Ron." Harry and Ron followed Shadow down the path. Naomi, Hermione, and Dawn turned down another path that led to the right side of the courtyard, but the boys took one that led to the side opposite where they had entered.

They followed Shadow into the castle, where there was a large entrance hall. It seemed that the entire castle was made of the white stone, and it was very nice looking. On the walls were many tapestries and paintings, along with a few windows looking out into the courtyard they had just been in. A marble staircase sort of like the one at Hogwarts led upwards from the middle of the hall.

After climbing up the stairs and walking through several bright, window-lined corridors that had great views of the castle grounds, Shadow led them to a hallway that had a plush blue carpet running down the length of it. There were many doors off to the left and right, and Harry wondered what was behind them.

Shadow showed them where the doors to their rooms were, then told them to meet him back in the north courtyard, as Dawn had said.

"How do we get there? We'll get lost for sure in this huge place!" said Ron desperately as Shadow turned to leave.

Shadow laughed. "Oh, yeah, I forgot...all right, I'll wait for you."

"Thanks," said Harry. He and Ron entered the first room.

"Ooh, this room's mine!" said Ron excitedly.

There was a big, comfy-looking bed in the center of the room, which had a red bedspread and red canopy. There was a red and orange rug on the floor, and a white couch along with a table and a few overstuffed chairs. The curtains on the windows were open, and Harry glimpsed the blue sky outside. Everything in the room had the same color scheme of reds, oranges, and some yellows. It looked really good, Harry had to admit.

"Okay, fine, you get this one," he said.

Shadow smiled. "Then Harry gets the next one. Notice there's a door over there-" he pointed to a door on the right side of the room. "-that leads to the next room, where Harry's going to be."

Harry led the way through the door, and found that he liked his room much better than Ron's.

The bed was in the corner rather than the middle of the room, and it had no canopy, but Harry didn't care. It looked just as puffy and comfortable. The bedspread was dark blue, and the curtains were, too. There was a green and blue patterned rug on the floor, but the blue was much lighter than the bed. A few candles glowed on a handsome dark wooden dresser, and there was a light green couch with matching chairs in another corner. Next to the chairs was a bookshelf that was loaded with all sorts of books, and Harry wondered if Hermione's room had one. This room, unlike Ron's, followed a color scheme of blues, greens, and other cool colors.

Ron looked around. "Well now I wish I took this room," he said. Harry grinned.

"Too bad!" He ducked as Ron aimed a blow at his head, then followed Shadow through another door that led out into the hallway.

They walked down to the bottom floor and through a few more corridors until they came to two double doors with many windowpanes in them. They stepped out into the courtyard, and found that it was quite different from the one they had first been in.

A few low hedges ran through it, and there was a small tree here and there. At the center was a fountain that was sculpted to look like five different people. Harry couldn't see exactly who they were from where he stood. He did, however, see the three girls sitting on the edge of the fountain, talking lightly.

"Hey," said Shadow as they approached.

"Hi," said Hermione, Dawn, and Naomi together. They giggled, then Naomi spoke to Ron and Harry.

"How do you like your rooms?"

"They're so cool! Better than anything I've ever had on Privet Drive, that's for sure."

"Well, duh," said Naomi, shaking her head. "What'd you expect?"

Harry rolled his eyes and sat next to her. She rested her head on his shoulder, and Harry put an arm around her waist. Ron sat next to Hermione, but Shadow remained standing. "Naomi," he said, frowning. "Your godfather has been waiting for you. As soon as he heard you left the school, he came up here. He's been really worried."

"Oh..." said Naomi, lifting her head from Harry's shoulder. "He won't be too pleased with me, I guess."

"Well, I'm sure he'll be glad you're safe, and forget about telling you off," said Dawn mildly.

Harry opened his mouth to say that he didn't know Naomi had a godfather, but jumped when a new voice spoke behind him.

"I wouldn't count on not having any telling off at all."

Harry knew that voice. It was a slow, deep, calming voice that he had heard many times before.

He turned around and saw Kingsley Shacklebolt looking down at him. Harry felt his mouth drop and only one thing buzzed in his brain. Kingsley Shacklebolt is Naomi's godfather?

Naomi looked at Kingsley, but didn't meet his eyes. "Hello, Mr. Shacklebolt," she muttered. Then, before she could stop herself, she blurted, "Do you really think he'll be mad at me?" From this statement, Harry concluded that Kingsley was definitely not Naomi's godfather.

Kingsley chuckled. "I cannot say, Naomi."

"Right then," she said with a sigh. She stood up and began wandering around the courtyard. Harry stood up to go talk to her, but Kingsley started talking to him.

"Hello, Harry. I haven't seen you in a while."

"Hullo, Mr. Shacklebolt," said Harry quickly. "Er...how have you been?"

Kingsley sighed. "Well, my job at the Ministry has been very slow," he said carefully. Harry felt his stomach drop. Kingsley's job at the Ministry had been running the search for Sirius. He had, of course, been feeding the Ministry incorrect information about Sirius's whereabouts. Harry really didn't want to think about Sirius right now. He didn't say anything.

"Well, I suppose you'll only be staying here until tomorrow. You should look around while you're here."

Harry just nodded.

"Goodbye to you all," he said, looking around at everyone there. He bowed to Dawn, then turned and left.

Harry quickly walked over to Naomi and sat with her on a bench. They sat there for a long time, Naomi resting her head on his shoulder, and Harry's arm around her waist again. Neither of them spoke. After about three minutes, Dawn called over to them that they were headed back inside. Harry didn't really fell like going in, but he and Naomi got up anyway, and reentered the castle with the rest.

They stood in the corridor, Dawn looking as though she was thinking. She looked left, then right, then turned to the others.

"Fancy a game of Quidditch?"

Harry and Naomi looked at each other, then around at Ron and Hermione. They seemed to be all for the idea, so Harry sighed. "Okay. I think that'd be good to...take my mind off things."

He said the last words in an undertone so that Naomi was the only one to hear him. Then he realized that Naomi hadn't been present while Kingsley had alluded to Sirius's death. Naomi just nodded, however, and said, "I heard the conversation. I'm sorry..." Then she spoke to the rest of them. "Yeah, I'd love to play. But keep it down, I don't want godfather finding me too soon...he probably already knows I'm here."

Dawn, Shadow, Ron, and Hermione laughed, but Harry only wanted even more to know who her godfather was.

Shadow and Dawn led them through the castle until they came to a doorway leading into a room that held all the supplies for Quidditch matches. They all grabbed a broom, which were all either Nimbus 2000's, Nimbus 2001's, or Firebolts. Another doorway led outside, but as Harry walked through it he gasped.

They weren't just outside, they were in a Quidditch stadium. The mountains rose up on three sides of it, and the golden goal posts gleamed in the afternoon sun. Harry walked out onto the soft grass, and eagerly mounted his broom. He kicked off into the air, and was immediately followed by Naomi. "Race you around!" he called out to her, and she wasted no time in bolting off around the stadium.

Harry and Naomi were side by side, speeding around the stadium at breakneck speeds. Harry ended up winning by about a meter, but it was only because he was closer to the inside, while Naomi was on the outer edge.

They landed, panting, next to the others, and divided into teams. Harry was on a team with Ron and Shadow, and the girls were on another team. They decided to play without bludgers, as they only had enough players for a chaser, seeker, and keeper on each team.

The girl's team ended up winning, because Harry was watching the other players and didn't notice until too late that Naomi was hurtling towards the Snitch. Dawn and Hermione, of course, weren't about to let the boys forget this match too soon.

The six of them were walking through the castle to eat dinner, arguing about the match. Dawn and Hermione were making fun of Shadow, Ron, and Harry. Naomi hadn't said anything in a long time, and Harry looked around to find that she was gone. She must have slipped off while we were arguing, thought Harry.

He pointed out that she was gone to the others, and Dawn rolled her eyes and said,

"She's probably up in her room, don't freak out, Harry! Come on, let's go find her."

Dawn led the way up some stairs and through a few more corridors. Harry saw that they had just passed the hall where he and Ron were staying when they turned into another one. It was very similar to the boy's hall, but the rug on the floor was pale yellow and blue.

They walked to the last door on the right, and Harry knocked quietly. He opened the door and looked around the room.

The hardwood floor had only one small white rug, that was right next to the bed. The bed was in a corner, next to a window. Another window was on the wall opposite Harry, and it was opened. The white curtains were billowing out from the breeze blowing into the room. The bedding was white, but the dresser was dark wood. A desk of the same dark wood was on the wall where the door was, and a table made of the same dark wood was in another corner.

Naomi was sitting on her bed, staring out of the window. Her hair was tied back in one long braid, and as Harry opened the door, she turned around to face him.

She didn't say anything, but watched as Harry looked around and came into the room. Naomi quietly moved over so Harry could sit down with her, and he sat cross-legged on the bed, facing her. She hugged her knees to her chest, resting her chin on her knees as well.

"Hey," Harry said.

"Hi."

"What're you doing up here?" Harry noticed that no one had followed him inside, and that they had closed the door behind him.

"Just...thinking."

Harry nodded to show that he understood, then asked carefully, "Did you find your godfather?"

She gave a humorless laugh. "Did my godfather find me, you mean. He's going to be so mad..."

"I'm sure he'll forgive you. Besides, if he tries to give you a hard time, I'll tell him it was all my fault. Because it was."

Naomi smiled, and Harry was relieved to see that she was getting more cheerful. "Why are you always looking out for me? I never really thought you would care so much..."

Harry looked sarcastically affronted. "Well sorry, if you'd rather be beaten up by Malfoy and be left there next time, just tell me."

She giggled. "All right, so I really do need you sometimes."

Harry started as the door burst open, and someone yelled, "NAOMI SMITH!"

Harry turned around so fast that he cricked his neck. Rubbing his hand painfully on the back of his neck, he looked at the door and saw-


	17. Chapter 17

Remus Lupin, standing in the doorway. Naomi sat bolt upright when she heard her name, then moaned and leaned over to lay her head on Harry's chest. "Save me," she whispered jokingly.

Lupin stormed over to the bed and Naomi grudgingly stood up.

"Hello, Remus," she said miserably, facing him.

"Naomi, I can't believe you! After all we did to get you transferred to Hogwarts, you go running into the forest! You know you could have been killed?"

"I know, I'm sor-"

"It's my fault," Harry said quickly.

Lupin turned to Harry, apparently seeing him for the first time.

"Harry! Why are you here?"

"I followed Naomi when she ran away. I had to." Seeing Lupin's puzzled expression, Harry told about what had happened. By the end, Lupin was staring at Harry, his face expressionless. He slowly turned to Naomi, who was looking like she expected a punishment.

Lupin looked at Naomi, and said softly, "I was afraid you would never be found. I thought I had lost you."

Naomi hung her head. "I'm really sorry, Remus," she said miserably.

Lupin pulled her into a hug and said, "Just be careful. You know you're in more danger than most other people are."

"Yes, I know," said Naomi, hugging him back. "I just wasn't thinking, that's all."

Lupin stepped back. "Well, I'll take you and Harry back to school tomorrow. Good thing it's a weekend, you won't have missed any lessons."

Naomi looked a bit nervous, and she looked at the floor as she muttered, "Um...about that...Ron and Hermione are here, too." She said the last sentence very quickly, as though it would be easier to say if she said it really fast.

"They followed you as well? Naomi, they could have been killed, too-"

"I said I'm sorry," she said, sitting back down onto the bed. Harry had noticed that Lupin's last comment hadn't had an angry tone, but a tone of fatherly concern.

"Okay, okay. I'll have a portkey arranged to take you back to the school tomorrow."

"Thanks."

"...You should eat dinner and go to bed," said Lupin, looking around at both of them.

"Not hungry," Naomi muttered, still looking at the floor.

Lupin looked like he was going to tell her that she had to eat something, but he just shrugged and said, "Well, I've got to get back to headquarters. And if I hear about you getting into more trouble at school-"

He didn't seem to need to finish the sentence.

"Goodbye Naomi--Harry," he said, and disapparated from the room.

Harry turned slowly to Naomi, who had gotten up and walked to the window.

"Professor Lupin is your godfather, huh?"

"Yeah. Especially now, because I don't have any real family anymore..."

Harry didn't say anything. Naomi stepped back from the window as an owl swooped in and perched itself on top of the dresser.

Naomi walked over to it and took the envelope from its beak. She opened it, read a letter from inside, and looked at the other contents of the envelope. She didn't tell Harry what was in it. All she said was, "We should leave for dinner soon. Dawn says it's in like five minutes."

"I thought you weren't hungry?"

"So? I can still be there, can't I?"

She quickly took her hair down from its braid and started out of the room, motioning for Harry to follow. He got up and, as he followed her out of the room, "What else was in that envelope?"

Naomi just smiled and acted as though she hadn't heard him.

××××××

The two of them walked downstairs to dinner, Naomi still refusing to tell what was in the envelope despite Harry's nagging. As they rounded a corner, Naomi stopped, face Harry, and looked into his eyes.

"Harry," she said softly, pushing her hair out of her face.

"Yeah?" Harry asked eagerly, and at the same time thinking, She's going to tell me!

"I'll tell you only if you..."

"Only if I what?"

"Only if you beat me to dinner!" she exclaimed gleefully, turning on her heel and sprinting down the corridor.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Harry shouted, starting after her. Luckily for him, his Quidditch training had gotten him in better shape, so he managed to avoid total defeat.

Harry found that the dining room was on the ground floor as he ran after Naomi. He saw her stop outside a wooden double door, and he skidded to a halt a few seconds later.

Naomi was panting and laughing, grinning uncontrollably at Harry.

"That--was--so--unfair--you--little--" Harry gasped, his hands on his knees as he breathed very hard and fast.

Naomi smiled sweetly. "Too bad, you loose!"

"Well, you can at least be a good sport about it," said Harry, straightening up and regaining his breath. Naomi looked like she was thinking about this for a moment, then she said, "You're right. You get a second-place prize."

Before Harry could say anything else, Naomi stood on her toes and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

"Come on, Mr. Potter, we're going to be late for dinner!" And she swept off through the doors.

Harry could feel his face burning. Hoping no one would notice, he followed her inside.

The dining room had a table in the center that was covered in a white tablecloth. There was a purple-and-blue runner down the middle of it, with a vase of white roses halfway down and golden candlesticks. There was a crystal chandelier hanging on the ceiling, and the walls were peacock blue. Harry found that Ron, Hermione, Dawn, and Shadow were already there. They all sat at the end of the table so they could talk without shouting.

After dinner (which Naomi didn't eat, just as she had said before), they all went into the library to talk. Harry suppressed a smile at Hermione's reaction upon entering the library. She gasped and exclaimed, "I've never seen so many books in one place before!"

Harry was a bit surprised, but he was also on the verge of being overwhelmed by the mass of books there. About five tables stood randomly in the large room, and all of the walls were lined with bookshelves. There was a ladder here and there so that the books on top could be reached, and Harry also noticed that the room was two stories high. A walkway ran around the top of where the ceiling of the first floor would have been, and still more bookshelves were around the outer wall of that. A tightly spiraling staircase led up to the top.

Harry walked across the floor, which was hardwood, only many rugs had been placed on it so that hardly any of it showed. Everyone sat around on big puffy armchairs and poufs, and Hermione stared longingly around the shelves, still in awe of the amount of books there.

"So," Shadow said, casually stretching his tall frame out in the chair, "What do you think?"

"This room is wonderful," Hermione said quietly. Harry could see that she was not even fully sitting down, and her eyes were still on the books.

Ron grabbed her arm and forced her to sit in a pouf. "Hermione, we're not at school, you don't have to do research!"

Hermione glared at him, and Ron said, "No, wait, I meant I'm not going to let you do research. Just take a break."

"Fine, I won't," Hermione said, sitting poutily on the pouf.

Everyone laughed, even Hermione.

They talked for a while, and just when Hermione and Dawn were about to bring up the Quidditch match again, Naomi changed the subject.

"I think we should ask Dawn and Shadow about Percy's note," she said to Harry.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Good idea."

Dawn sat up. "What do you mean?"

Harry and Hermione looked at Ron, so he explained the issue with Percy, but he only told the same thing he had told Harry the year before.

Shadow was frowning, looking like he was already thinking hard about it. Ron nodded to Harry, so he told about receiving the note and reading the message at the bottom once he was at Hogwarts.

"...and that was all it said. Do you think he's lying?"

Dawn bit her lip and looked at Shadow, who had his head in his hands. He looked up and ran his fingers through his hair, then said, "Do you still have the note?"

Harry nodded. "I think so."

Shadow looked at Ron. "Do you think you have anything with your brother's handwriting on it? Before this letter, I mean."

Ron considered this for a moment. "Yeah, I might be able to find something...why?"

"I'd like to see both of those sometime. You could just send it by owl. I just want to see if the handwriting matches up perfectly."

"I think it was his handwriting, it sure looked like it to me. But I do see what you mean. Sure, we'll send it as soon as we can."

"Good. Now, have you asked your father about if that message was true?"

"...No, I don't think I ever did."

Shadow nodded. "You should do that."

They talked for a few more hours, but decided to go to bed when Hermione fell asleep, curled up on her pouf.

×××××

Harry, back in his room, looked around at the calm colors all around him. He felt more peaceful then he had in a while, but he didn't exactly know why. He actually was dwelling on Sirius, and he was feeling very down because of it. He supposed that the atmosphere of the room was making it less painful. The window was open and the cool night breeze played across his face. He sighed and leaned back in the soft armchair, his eyes closed. The only sounds were the trees rustling and an occasional owl, whose soft cry filled the air and quickly died out. Harry opened his eyes for a moment, and saw something flutter past his window. He got up and looked out, but saw that it was only a leaf, tumbling through the wind towards the ground.

He looked out over the country that was unknown to him. Even though it was all unfamiliar, he found that he liked it a lot here. For a while now he had been thinking that he was in his final hours of his stay. He had felt so free here, without the school rules.

Somewhere far off, a wolf's lone howl rose. The long, melencholy note filled Harry's mind, then died slowly off. Harry quickly looked up at the moon, and saw that it was a glowing full circle. He wondered dimly if the wolf he had heard was a werewolf. Leaving the window open, he climbed into bed and soon felt himself drifting off to sleep.

Harry woke with a start as he heard someone shouting. "Harry! HARRY!"


	18. Chapter 18

Harry grabbed his glasses from his bedside table and jumped out from under his covers. Or, at least, that was what he meant to do. His legs got tangled in the sheets, and he tumbled painfully out of bed. Still fumbling with his glasses, he kicked away the tangle of sheets and stood up, finally putting his glasses on.  
Just then the door burst open, and Naomi ran inside. "Harry! Did you just get up? We have to leave in two minutes!"  
"T-two minutes?" said Harry hoarsely. Looking at his watch, he saw that it was 7:58. He snapped to his senses and dashed after Naomi, who was already out the door. Together they hurtled down the corridors and stairs, skidding around corners, until they came to the North courtyard; the same place they had met up with Kingsley Shacklebolt.  
Lupin's voice cried out, "Hurry up!" the minute they burst through the door. Harry and Naomi dashed over to where Ron, Hermione, and Lupin were standing by the fountain, Hermione holding an empty flowerpot.  
Panting, Harry looked at his watch again. They had about thirty seconds until 8:00.  
Naomi quickly touched the pot, and Harry and Ron did the same. Lupin looked at Harry and said, "Take care, Harry. You and Naomi try not to cause too much damage around the school." He smiled and suddenly Harry felt a jerk around his navel, and Lupin along with the courtyard and castle disappeared from his sight.  
  
  
  
Harry felt his feet hit the ground, and he toppled over onto something very soft. Sitting up and looking around, he saw that he was on a pouf in the Gryffindor common room. Ron had fallen to the ground, Naomi had tripped over a table, but Hermione was still standing.  
"Very graceful," she laughed, putting down the flowerpot.  
"Yeah, well..." Naomi muttered as she got to her feet.  
"Shut up, Hermione," snapped Ron, sitting heavily on the couch next to Harry.  
Hermione laughed and sat down on Harry's other side. Naomi sat on the arm of the couch, facing the rest of them with her feet on the cushion.  
"So...it's Sunday. What are we going to do today?" she asked casually.  
"Homework," said Harry automatically.  
Hermione looked sharply at him. "What are you talking about? We didn't have that much, it shouldn't have taken you all weekend!"  
"I know! We had the Quidditch match yesterday, and we only got back today, Hermione. You know that!"  
Naomi laughed. "You should have been smart like us. We did it on Friday."  
"Well, good for you," said Ron irritably. "You just go and enjoy the rest of your day while we sit here slaving over our stupid homework."  
"Great idea! Come on, Naomi. Let's go find Ginny," said Hermione, jumping up and heading for the exit.  
"Hey, wait! I was being sarcastic! You're supposed to stay and help us!" cried Ron.  
"What do you think books are for?" asked Naomi playfully, turning back a bit as she began to climb through the portrait hole.  
Ron slumped in his chair and glared ahead, recognizing defeat. Harry thought he and Ron deserved some help, so he gave it a shot.  
"Hey, if we do our homework today, will you check it for us later?"  
"Whatever you say, your majesty," said Naomi with a mock curtsy.  
Harry grinned, then tried to look very superior. "Of course. Whatever I say goes. I expect you back here at four o'clock."  
Naomi burst out laughing and said, "Yeah, if you're finished by then?"  
Harry dropped the superior look and cried, "Hey!"  
But Hermione and Naomi slipped out of the common room before he could say anything else.  
Behind Harry, Ron chuckled. "Good job, mate. You got them to check our homework, and you got Naomi to obey your every command."  
Harry laughed in a falsely grim way. "Let's see how long that lasts."  
They both snorted with laugher and headed up to the dormitories to get their work.  
"Where do you reckon everybody is?" said Ron as they climbed the stairs.  
"At breakfast, Ron. It's only eight o'clock."  
"Oh...yeah," said Ron, realization dawning on his face. Harry rolled his eyes and continued through the door to the sixth years' dorm.  
They grabbed their bags and made their way back to the common room.  
Both of them had been bent over their homework for about an hour when Harry leaned down to look something up in his potions book. Just as he straightened up, Harry stopped as he heard a soft tap, tap, tap.  
Knowing that sounds by now-and glad for the interruption-he got up and walked to the window to let in the owl that was there. Harry took the letter from it and it swooped off out of the open window. Just as he was about to open it, another owl came in and flew over to Ron. Ron took the letter, looked at Harry, and shrugged as the second owl swooped off.  
Harry saw that he didn't recognize the handwriting on the front of the envelope. He turned it over slowly and opened it, removing the letter from inside.  
  
Harry,  
I realized that Dawn and I never got to say goodbye to you, so I thought I'd just write you instead. Have you found anything we can use to compare the handwriting to? Remember, ask his father if what the letter said was true, and send me the letter and the handwriting to compare it to. I'll see if I can't figure something out. Naomi will keep me posted on what's going on with her, but I think it'd be a good idea if you did, too-just because she might not know everything, and I'd like to try and get all sides of the story. I'll let you know if I find anything, but as you probably know I can't put too much in a letter. You must understand that if these letters are intercepted, we're in trouble. Write back if you need to tell me anything about what you've found out.  
Talk to you later,  
Shadow  
  
Harry had to read it a few times through to make sense of it, just because Shadow couldn't name specific details in a letter, which Harry knew well by now. After reading it three times, he thought, Of course, he's talking about Percy.  
Harry then noticed that there was another piece of parchment behind the first. He put down Shadow's letter and read the next one.  
  
Dear Harry,  
I'm so sorry I never got to say goodbye to you, but I had to be somewhere else at the time. Shadow told you everything that really needs to be said, but I just wanted to write.  
Best wishes,  
Dawn  
  
There was a hastily written added note under the graceful, curvy signature.  
  
P.S. Don't tell Shadow I told you this, I'm just adding it in quickly while he's getting the owl to send it with. Anyway, I know Remus told you to stay out of trouble, but that doesn't mean you have to follow all of the rules. You probably already know that, but I just thought I'd remind you to remember to have a little fun now and then, and I never found following every single rule to be fun. I hear Shadow coming back, got to go!  
  
Harry smiled. Dawn's personality had always seemed to be excited and adventurous, and this letter proved it for sure. Folding up the letters and slipping them into his pocket, he walked back to Ron, who was staring at his letter with a look of mingled annoyance and relief on his face.  
"What's up?" asked Harry.  
Ron snorted and waved the letter around a bit. "It's mum. 'Remus told us what happened, and I don't want you ever going into that forest again, Ronald Weasley!'" he said in a high-pitched voice. "On and on. But at least she didn't send a howler."  
"It wouldn't have mattered much, everyone's outside now anyway."  
Ron looked at the still open window, and Harry could feel the cool autumn breeze blowing across his face.  
"Wish we were," muttered Ron.  
Harry sighed and looked out at the perfectly blue sky, broken by white clouds.  
"Why don't we just go out for a little while?"  
"Because Naomi and Hermione are out there. And Ginny, too. They'd see us."  
"Well...can't we just walk around the school for a while?"  
Ron immediately jumped up, throwing down his quill. "Fine by me!"  
Harry stuffed a bottle of ink, a quill, and some parchment into his pocket, then followed Ron through the portrait hole.  
The two of them set off through the castle, walking along corridors and looking through the windows out to the beautiful grounds.  
Eventually, Ron's stomach let out a loud grumble. He moaned and said, "I'm starved. Want to get some food from the kitchens?"  
"Nah, you go ahead," said Harry. "I want to send a letter."  
"Right then. I'll save you something, just in case."  
"Sure. Thanks."  
Ron hurried off in the other direction, as Harry walked towards the owlry. He got there and looked around for Hedwig. He finally spotter her, far up in the rafters. Deciding not to wake her until he was ready, he sat down against a wall and quickly wrote a letter to Shadow. All Harry really put in it was that he didn't have anything to send except for the mysterious letter itself, and that he would send Shadow something as soon as he found it. When he finished scribbling the note, he stood up and brushed off the straw from his robes.  
"Hey, Hedwig!" he called. A few owls woke up irritably, including Hedwig. She glared at Harry from her perch, and he said, more quietly this time, "I need you to deliver a letter."  
She swooped down to him, and in a minute or two she was flying out the window with the letter.  
Harry left the owlry and walked aimlessly down a corridor. He paused at a window and looked outside, leaning up against it. Gazing at the surface of the lake, he saw short, choppy waves forming from the cool breeze. Hearing a sniff somewhere nearby, he snapped back to reality.  
Looking around, Harry wasn't sure how long he'd been there. He made his way towards the noise and just as he rounded a corner he saw Cho Chang walking slowly towards him, constantly rubbing her eyes and looking very preoccupied.  
Upon seeing Harry, Cho froze and quickly wiped her eyes and sniffed again. "Harry!" she said hurriedly. "W-what are you doing inside?"  
Harry shrugged. "I'm supposed to be doing homework."  
Cho smiled a little. "Hard to concentrate today, isn't it? Such nice weather out."  
"Yeah." She's talking about the weather, Harry thought. Something must be up.  
"Why don't you go outside?"  
"Hermione and Naomi know Ron and I should be studying, and they're both outside."  
She giggled slightly, looking like she was recovering from whatever it was that had her so upset. "So..."  
"Why aren't you out there?" asked Harry, trying to keep the conversation going.  
Cho looked at the wall. "I dunno."  
"Want to walk with me?"  
She just nodded and the two of them set off again, with no particular destination. After about a minute, Harry glanced sideways at her. "I'm sorry about everything I said to you before."  
Cho swallowed. "It's okay...really. It was true, and I think I needed to hear it."  
"So," said Harry. He stopped, turned to her, and held out his hand. "Friends?"  
Cho nodded and shook Harry's hand. "Friends."  
Harry smiled. "Cool."  
With a weak smile, Cho started walking again. Harry noticed she was still looking teary-eyed.  
"What's wrong? You look upset about something..."  
"Oh, it's nothing, I just...Oh, Harry! What have I done?" She sobbed suddenly as she slumped against the wall, her face in her hands. 


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 20:**  
Feeling shocked at Cho's sudden breakdown, Harry knelt next to her and said urgently, "Cho! What's wrong?"  
"I d-don't know w-w-what I was th-thinking!"  
"Shhâit's okay," said Harry, desperately trying to calm her down. Cho continued to sob uncontrollably for a few minutes, and Harry thought it best to just wait. When she had calmed down a bit, she looked up at him and said again,  
"What have I done?"  
"I-er-don't know, Choâwill you tell me?"  
"I-I" she trailed off and began to cry again, her face in her knees.  
Harry sighed and slumped to a sitting position. He sat there quietly until Cho could look up again; when she did, however, she let out a kind of muffled moan and leapt to her feet, running away down the corridor.  
"What-CHO! Where're you going? CHO!" Harry shouted after her as he scrambled to his feet.  
Cho didn't look back and disappeared around the corner. Harry cursed under his breath and muttered, "Women" as he walked thoughtfully back to Gryffindor Tower.  
Slowly making his way back up to the common room and lost in thought, Harry wasn't really looking where he was going. He snapped back to his senses, however, when he ran into Draco Malfoy.  
"Watch where you're going, Potter," snarled Malfoy.  
"Sorry," mumbled Harry, thinking that he didn't like the smirk on Malfoy's face at all.  
As Harry continued down the hall, his thoughts began to turn to what Malfoy was up to. Malfoy, like Snape, was always happy if someone else wasn't.  
Giving the password to the portrait, Harry climbed into the common room to find Ron leaning over his homework again, watched like a hawk by Hermione.  
Harry sighed. "So you caught us, eh, Hermione?"  
Hermione looked up and glared at Harry. "You, too! Ron said you were just up in your dormitory!" She turned now to glare menacingly at Ron.  
"What?" he said, trying to sound innocent but failing miserably, "You could have gone up there to check!"  
"I thought if I left you'd sneak out again, Ron! It's the kind of think you'd do, you know!"  
"Well then I- Hey!" said Ron, suddenly realizing what she'd said. "You don't trust me at all, do you?"  
"No, I don't," said Hermione in a I'm-right-and-that's-final kind of tone. She folded her arms and turned away from him to face Harry.  
"I shouldn't trust you, either-" she began.  
"Don't start in, please," Harry moaned as he seated himself near the two.  
"What's wrong?" said Hermione urgently, as she saw Harry's expression.  
"I met up with Cho in the corridor-"  
The portrait hole opened and Neville climbed in. "I've lost Trevor again, have any of you seen him?" he said miserably.  
Harry, Ron, and Hermione glanced at each other with raised eyebrows, and shook their heads.  
"Nope, sorry Neville," said Harry.  
Neville sighed. "I can't remember anything. I hate being stupid."  
Hermione looked extremely pained by this.  
Neville sat heavily on a chair. "So, anyone want to play Wizard's Chess?"  
Ron eagerly shoved his books off of the table and exclaimed, "I will!"  
"Oh, no you won't, Ron! You and Harry have to finish your work!"  
"Aw, come on Hermione! Give them a break!" Neville nagged.  
Harry and Ron beamed at him. Hermione scowled and finally gave in. She watched as Neville and Harry played, then Harry and Ron, then Ron and Neville. Even Hermione was laughing at the expression on Ron's face when Neville beat him.  
"Hey, Hermione," said Harry slowly as he watched Ron and Neville's re-match. "Where's Naomi?"  
"She was flying on her broomstick outside. We should go get her."  
Hermione looked meaningfully at Harry. The two got up and left, saying hurried good-byes to Neville and Ron (who didn't hear them at all), and made their way down to the entrance hall.  
"So what happened with Cho?" Hermione asked. Clearly she thought that Harry and Cho had simply gotten in a fight _again._  
"No, it's not what you think. We apologized to each other; we weren't fighting."  
"But what else could have happened besides that?" They were now outside, scanning the sky for any signs of Naomi on her broom as they talked and strolled around the lake.  
"We were talking, and she seemed upset the whole time. It was so weird, she randomly just-"  
Harry jumped as he felt something speed past him from behind. Ducking down, he looked up and saw Naomi come to a graceful landing a little bit ahead of Harry and Hermione.  
"Hey," she called as she hopped off and hurried over to them, pushing her windswept hair out of her face.  
"Hi," said Hermione in a distracted way. "So what happened that was really weird?" she inquired, turning to Harry.  
Naomi looked from Hermione to Harry. "What's up?" she said to Harry.  
"SomethingâI don't exactly know what"  
"Well, tell us about it," Naomi prompted as she lay down her broom and seated herself on the ground.  
Harry threw himself down next to her and described what had happened earlier in the corridor. He made sure to include his run-in with Malfoy.  
As Harry explained it out loud, it all seemed to make more sense. "I think Malfoy did something to her," he said immediately when he had finished telling his story. "But he'll never admit it. Shall we use the Polyjuice Potion again?"  
Hermione was quick to shoot down Harry's idea. "No, Harry! We don't know for sure that it was Malfoy, first of all. Second of all, we can't risk the potion again! We could never get past Snape this year. He's absolutely been dying for a reason to get you thrown out of his class-or expelled. We don't want him to get that chance. There must be something else we can do" She lapsed into thoughtful silence.  
"Erâokay--never mind, then," said Harry, surprised at her long speech and sudden end to it. "Naomi? Any ideas?"  
"I've got nothing," she muttered with a shrug.  
For what seemed to Harry to be at least an hour they sat and thought, not speaking to each other. But soon enough Harry's head was starting to ache from so much being crammed into it lately, and all he wanted to do was lie in bed for another year or so.  
Hermione sighed, and that seemed to snap all of them out of their reveries. The sun was beginning to go down, and the sky was getting darker.  
"Harry," said Naomi slowly, "Did you ever finish that homework?"  
Harry jumped and felt himself go red. "Oops," he muttered, scrambling to his feet and trying not to meet Hermione's venomous stare. He ran up to the castle doors, ignoring the scolding tones of Hermione's 'homework' speech, and found the entrance hall beginning to flood with students waiting to eat dinner. Having to fight against the flow of the crowd, it took longer than he would have hoped to get back to the common room. Not feeling hungry at all, he quickly sat at a table near the fire and pulled his books from his bag, which he had left on the floor. Harry sighed as he loaded his quill with ink. It was going to be a long night.  
  
×××××  
  
Ron, as it turned out, had slipped downstairs to eat before returning to the fireside to finish his homework. Together he and Harry worked late into the night, occasionally helping each other out-mostly when one had to wake the other after he fell asleep on his homework.  
Eventually, neither of them could keep their eyes awake any longer, so they trudged up to bed and collapsed onto their covers. Harry had suggested that they wake up early to finish, but by the next morning he was thinking that he should have known better.  
Harry was in Snape's dungeon, trying to explain why his homework wasn't done, babbling on and feeling his stomach wriggle as Snape's lip curled. The sinister look could only mean bad news for Harry. Snape opened his mouth and Harry waited for his sentence to fall.  
"ARGH!"  
Harry spun around, wondering who had yelled. Then he felt cold liquid all over his face as Snape threw a dark, shimmering potion on him...Harry yelled and jumped up, only to find himself tangled in his bedding on the floor. Hermione was standing over him, holding the silver pitcher from beneath the window. Harry's gaze fell onto a very disgruntled-looking Ron, whose soggy hair was plastered to his head.  
"Hermione!" cried Harry. "What was that for?!"  
"For sleeping through breakfast. Have you finished that-"  
"NO, okay?" snapped Ron. "We'll have to do it between classes or during lunch or something"  
"Better hurry, our first class is in ten minutes!"  
Harry and Ron exchanged mortified looks and scurried around to get ready. With all the confusion going on, it didn't occur to Harry that Cho has slipped his mind completely.

Harry was finding his schedule do be surprisingly busy, considering the fact that he didn't have any major tests like the O.W.L's or N.E.W.T's to prepare for. But still, between Quidditch, writing letters to Shadow and Dawn, and his normal homework and classes, he found that he had very little time on his hands. By the time the week of Halloween rolled around, Harry found himself looking forward to having fun at the feast.  
At Monday's breakfast, the first thing Harry noticed was the ceiling of the Great Hall. Gray clouds were starting to form in the sky today. As he sat down with Ron and Hermione, Harry looked up at the faculty table. Dumbledore was not there. In fact, Harry hadn't seen him all weekend.  
Professor McGonagall made the announcements, which included a reminder that the feast would be on Thursday. Hermione looked a bit grave when she heard the reminder.  
"What? Do you not like feasts or something?" asked Harry. Not that he cared very much. He was not in a good mood at all. And his scar was prickling more than usual. Which probably had something to do with his bad mood.  
"Oh, no, this doesn't have anything to do with spew, does it?" Ron said, rolling his eyes.  
"No, Ron," snapped Hermione. "I'm just not looking forward to dealing with what some students might do as pranks on Halloween. Trying to follow in Fred and George's footsteps," she added with disgust. "You should be thinking about that as well, Ron as you are going to help keep them in line."  
Ron's eyes widened and he set down his spoon. "Me? Why, you think I'd be any help with that?"  
"Well, now that you mention it, no." Hermione smirked as Ron frowned. "But since you're a prefect, it's your responsibility."  
Ron scowled. "I hate this job."  
Harry snorted.  
"What?" asked Ron.  
"It's just that-" Harry paused, stabbing his fork into a pancake. "You never really _do_ anything for your 'job'."  
"So? I can't help it if I'm no good at this. Not my fault Dumbledore was nutty enough to make me prefect."  
Hermione glared at him. "But since he _was_ nutty enough to, you have a responsibility!"  
"And?" Ron looked at Hermione, waiting for the rest of it.  
"Ron! You have to do your part!" Cried Hermione. "You're so irresponsible! You always depend on me to take notes for you, check your homework for you, get you to study so you don't fail your classes, even get you out of trouble-the least you can do is help out a little bit for just this one night!"  
Ron and Hermione continued their argument, until their bickering was making Harry's head hurt.  
_"Would you two just shut up for once?!"_ He said loudly.  
Ron and Hermione stopped and stared at Harry, both looking as though they had just remembered he was there.  
"Sorry," said Hermione, giving Ron a stern look to silence him as he opened his mouth. She was looking at Harry with a little bit of concern drawn on her face. "You okay?"  
Harry looked up, realizing that he had been rubbing his forehead with a pained look on his face. "Yeah," he muttered. "Headache."  
Harry glanced around the Great Hall, noticing that it was quieter than usual. Many students were staring at him, and he realized his sudden outburst had been louder than he had thought. Judging by the looks he was getting, some people still believed him to be insane.  
With a grudging glance toward the Slytherin table, Harry saw Pansy Parkinson stand up and storm out of the Great Hall. Just as she was exiting through the doors, Naomi was coming in. Naomi stepped aside to let Pansy pass, and looked over at Harry with raised eyebrows. With one last glance at Pansy, Naomi started towards the Gryffindor table, shaking her head in a bewildered way. She seated herself next to Hermione, dropping her bag underneath the table.  
"That was weird," she said, grabbing a piece of toast. "Has the post come yet?"  
A great rustling noise arose and hundreds of owls flooded into the room. After the few moments of confusion had died down, Ron looked at Naomi and said, "Yes."  
Naomi rolled her eyes and took a bite of toast, reading the letter that she had received. Harry, Hermione, and Ron seemed to have reached a silent agreement not to mention the conflict from minutes before. Harry borrowed Seamus' copy of the _Daily Prophet _and opened it up. He took a sip of orange juice and looked down at the front page.  
Harry spit out the orange juice he had just sipped; it spewed across the table and all over the newspaper, tablecloth, and some of the food. Most unfortunately, Professor McGonagall had been walking by the table at just that moment. Harry watched in embarrassment as McGonagall very slowly took her glasses off, pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket, and mopped the orange juice off of her face. She wiped her glasses clean, placed them back on her face and looked down at Harry, whose face was by now burning.  
Hermione and Naomi were staring in shock from Harry to McGonagall, but Ron was looking at his plate, shaking with silent laughter.  
"P-Professor, I-"  
"It would be appreciated, Potter," said McGonagall dryly, "If you would try to keep your food in your mouth from now on."  
The entire Great Hall was staring, and a few people were whispering and snickering. Harry wanted so badly to sink down in his chair and disappear under the table as he saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle pointing and laughing openly. Ron was still staring at his plate, apparently afraid he would not be able to control his laughter if he looked at McGonagall.  
"Come with me, Potter," said McGonagall. Harry slowly picked up his bag and stood up. He glanced at Naomi, Hermione, and Ron-who had now looked up-and saw the same expression on each of their faces. Was he going to get in trouble for that? Harry looked meaningfully at the orange-splattered _Daily Prophet_ before turning and dragging his feet after McGonagall. As he reached the doors of the Great Hall, he glanced back and saw the three of them crowding around the newspaper to see what had made Harry spit out his juice.  
As they entered the entrance hall and started up the stairs, McGonagall glanced back to make sure the Great Hall was babbling with noise again, then glanced at Harry.  
"Don't look so horrified, boy!" She said. "You're not in trouble!"  
"I'm not?" Harry asked. He noticed a few of the portraits staring at them.  
"No! That was actually rather amusing. The timing was so peculiar, that you would see that article the moment I came to fetch you."  
"You were going to take me out here anyway?" asked Harry, shocked at his luck.  
"Yes." McGonagall suddenly became dead serious. "Come on, to my office. We'll talk there."  
They continued up the stairs and Harry realized that of course this had to be more important that spewed orange juice. A man in a feathered cap whispered from his portrait as Harry walked by, "Lucky she didn't give you detention for a month!"  
He was thinking hard about what the professor had said when he noticed something_that you would see that article the moment I came to fetch you_â?  
"This has something to do with the article in the _Daily Prophet_, doesn't it?"  
"Shh! We will talk in my office, Potter. Not here!"  
Harry said nothing else as they made their way down the corridors. He was thinking about that newspaper article. He had only seen the headline and picture, which he now was concentrating on in his head:  
  
**Fudge Being Impeached?**  
  
And a large picture of the Minister was plastered beneath the article, looking shifty and highly uncomfortable.


End file.
